SPEECHES 



PUBLIC CORRESPONDENCE 



OF 



Ratcliffe Hicks 



M 



PRIVATELY PRINTED 

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE 

MDCCCXCVI 



•H& 



Copyright, 1896, 
By Cornelius Gardiner. 



CONTENTS 



[^ 



Page 

Biography 3 

Speeches in the Connecticut Legislature . . 15 

In favor of the Bill abolishing Capital Punishment 17 

In favor of the Woman Suffrage Bill 29 

In favor of the Bill for a Constitutional Convention 37 

In regard to the East Hartford Bridge 49 

In favor of Retrenchment of Public Expenses . . 56 
In favor of the Bill relieving the New York, New 
Haven, and Hartford Railroad from Double 

Taxation 66 

On presenting a Resolution appointing a Commis- 
sion on the Revision of the Constitution . . 73 
On the Resolution creating a Commission on the 

Revision of the Constitution 75 

On the Plurality Amendment 83 

On the Building and Control of the Hartford Bridge 87 
On the Resolution concerning Debenture Certifi- 
cates of the New York, New Haven, and Hart- 
ford Railroad Company 100 

On the Connecticut River Navigation 112 

On the Age of Consent, and Committee Report . 120 
V 



CONTENTS 

Page 

On the A. P. A. Resolution 124 

On a Question of Privilege 127 

On the Death of Frederick Douglas 129 

On the Meriden Dime Savings-Bank Charter . . 131 

Last Speech in the Assembly 132 

Miscellaneous Addresses 135 

Reply to General Joseph R. Hawley .... 137 

To the Tax Commission of Connecticut .... 189 

On the Irish Land League 196 

A Tribute to Lincoln 225 

In Memory of Horace Greeley 229 

In Memory of E. K. Foster 231 

Introducing James F. Babcock 232 

Remarks made at the Firemen's Dinner .... 235 

A Tribute to Tolland 237 

Opening the Connecticut Campaign 240 

To the Humane Institutions Committee .... 243 

To the Reform School Committee 247 

In Memory of Judge Waldo 250 

Correspondence . 253 

The City of Meriden 255 

Explaining Removal from the City Attorneyship . 257 

The Stafford Disaster 262 

The Johnson Trial 265 

A Southern Trip 270 

A Condensed History of Bermuda 277 

Proposed Reduction of Interest . 281 

Opposing Jury Trials 290 

vi 



CONTENTS 

Page 

A Tax- Payer on Consolidation 293 

New Haven County Commissioners 295 

Shall Supreme Court Judges be excused from Cir- 
cuit Duty ? 299 

Brown University Prizes 303 

Gift to Meriden High School Fund 305 

The Ratcliffe Hicks Prizes in the Connecticut 

Agricultural College 307 

Statue to Frederick S. Brown 310 

Thanks of the Congregational Ecclesiastical Soci- 
ety of Tolland 315 

County Reform 316 

Retrenchment 320 

The Bridgeport Railroad Problem 321 

Letter to Governor CofiSn 325 

Thanks from the Hartford Equal Rights Club . . 328 

Interviews 329 

An Opinion on Congress 331 

A Tribute to New Orleans 338 

A Tariff Commission 343 

Letter declining to be a Candidate for Governor . 348 



BIOGRAPHY 



/ have been requested to compile and have printed 
the speeches and public papers of Ratcliffe Hicks for 
distribution among his immediate friends. They 
may not be unintei-esting to the general public, and 
I feel sure that there are some -who will be pleased 
to have in this permanent form the public utter- 
ances of Mr. Hicks on matters of general interest 
to the people of the State of Connecticut. 



BIOGRAPHY 

RATCLIFFE HICKS was born in the pic- 
turesque town of Tolland, Conn., Oct. 3, 
1843. He is to-day the chief representative of 
a line of ancestors dating back in this country to 
1644, and in England till it loses itself in the 
misty ages of the past. Since the arrival of his 
first American ancestor, Thomas Hicks, who sailed 
from London in 1644, and settled in Scituate, 
Mass., the family has been closely identified with 
the progress of America. Its members have 
achieved distinction in all walks of life. They 
have won success on the seas and on the land, 
in private pursuits and in public, in trade and in 
the professions. For the past century and a half 
the family has made its home in historic Con- 
necticut. Its name has an honored place in the 
annals of that State, and to the treasury of the 
noble efforts of his forefathers, Ratcliffe Hicks, 
the subject of this sketch, has added the wealth of 
his own endeavors. 

In these days when so much is made of one's 
Revolutionary ancestors, it may be proper to state 
that his great-grandmother was left a widow, at the 
3 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

time of the Revolutionary War. Her husband 
was a prominent physician of Tolland. Being left 
with two sons and three daughters, she took up 
the practice of medicine, and travelled daily for 
miles on horseback in keeping up the business 
established by her husband. She sent her two 
sons to Yale College. One of them afterwards be- 
came an eminent physician, and was the first pres- 
ident of the well-known New England Society of 
New York City. The other son was the grand- 
father on his mother's side of Mr. Hicks. He was 
long a leading lawyer of Tolland, and represented 
it many times in the General Assembly. In the 
Legislature of 1866 he was a member of the com- 
mittee on the eight-hour law, and drew the report 
of the minority. The law passed one house, but 
was defeated in the other branch. 

The life of Ratcliffe Hicks is typically American. 
It demonstrates again the possibilities which lie in 
store for every American youth endowed with hon- 
esty, energetic persistency, and courage. It is a 
lesson which tells of the opportunities fringing the 
path of every young man in the land and awaiting 
his embrace. It is additional proof of the oft- 
repeated but frequently disbelieved assertion that 
the chances for honorable achievement and dis- 
tinguished success are as great in this day of lively 
competition as in the much-talked-of good old 
times ; for Ratcliffe Hicks, despite the long list of 
his accomplishments, is still a young man com- 
4 



BIOGRAPHY 

pared with others who have done as much. He 
has apparently many years of life in store for him 
in which to enjoy the rich fruits whicli he has 
gathered from his labors. 

Ratclifife Hicks was named in honor of his 
grandfather, who won a splendid reputation as one 
of New England's bravest, most daring, and ablest 
sea-captains. His voyages had taken him to every 
navigable part of the globe. His life was most 
tempestuous, but successful, and he left behind 
him a name which his grandson has ever cherished 
with ardent love and infinite respect. The father 
of the present Ratcliffe Hicks was a prominent 
merchant in Providence, R. I., and afterwards 
in New York City. The son, of whom it is my 
pleasure to write, has won fame and fortune as a 
lawyer, a manufacturer, a man of business, and a 
legislator. The early part of his Hfe was spent in 
an unceasing effort for success. He was at that 
time, as now, an omnivorous and careful reader. 
The law, the sciences, and the best and choicest 
literature of all ages were to him, and are now, 
what many forms of amusement are to other 
young men. 

It was young Hicks's firm intention to get a 
university training. With that end in view, after 
elementary studies at home, he entered Monson 
Academy, where he prepared himself for Brown 
University. He became a member of the fresh- 
man class of that college in iS6o, and graduated 
5 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

with high honors four years later, with the degree 
of A. B. Throughout his school and college days 
he gave particular attention to public speaking, and 
won many a triumph as a debater and young ora- 
tor of much promise. He was one of the founders 
of the Delta Upsilon Chapter at Brown, and has 
always been a generous contributor to the Chapter. 
He took high rank in his class, and was one of 
the orators at the Commencement. 

He began life, after graduating, as a school- 
teacher in the town of his birth. He devoted his 
leisure hours to studying law in Judge Loren P. 
Waldo's office. He kept this up for two years, and 
was then admitted to the Connecticut bar. Im- 
mediately after his admission to the bar, he became 
associated in partnership with United States Sena- 
tor Piatt, of Meriden. This partnership continued 
for three years. The following ten years he con- 
tinued the practice of his profession alone, the last 
three in Hartford. 

His success as a lawyer was remarkable for one 
so young. He soon became known throughout 
the length and breadth of his State, and also in 
the adjoining States, as a lawyer of great oratorical 
powers, of painstaking disposition, and of rare good 
judgment. Business flowed in upon him as swiftly 
as he could dispose of it. The rapidity of that 
flow will perhaps be more fully appreciated when 
it is known that it netted him an average income 
of over $10,000 a year. He was engaged in many 
6 



BIOGRAPHY 

of the most important cases tried before the New 
England tribunal. Probably the most noted of his 
cases was the famous Sprague litigation in Rhode 
Island. For his services in that suit he received a 
fee of $10,000. His activity in the litigation of 
Connecticut will be readily understood from the 
statement that his name is in every volume of the 
Connecticut Reports from 1866 to 1879. In two 
of the other famous cases which he won, the fol- 
lowing principles were established : — 

That no one can recall a gift, and that where 
a person has deposited money in a savings-bank, 
although retaining the bank-book in his posses- 
sion, it is still a gift which he cannot recall. 

That intoxication is a defence to be used in 
'Connecticut in cases of murder where the intent 
is a feature of the crime. 

Between the years 1869 and 1874 Mr. Hicks 
was City Attorney of Meriden, and from 1873 to 
1876 he was Attorney for the County of New 
Haven. In those two public offices he made an 
excellent reputation for the vigorous and skilful 
manner in which he handled the public business. 
They were not, however, the first pubUc offices he 
held, as in 1866 he had the distinction of being 
elected a member of the Connecticut Legislature. 
He was the youngest member of the Legislature at 
that time. He attracted considerable attention by 
his enthusiastic work tempered by a maturity of 
judgment seldom seen in one so young. In 1S93 
7 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

he was elected to the Legislature again, and did 
most important work as a member of several of 
the chief committees of that body. He made 
speeches during his second term as a legislator, 
with a brilliancy of diction and a vigor of expres- 
sion which brought him commendation and con- 
gratulation from all parts of the State. His 
admirers were not confined to the ranks of the 
Democracy, of which he has ever been a most 
loyal member. Republicans by the score were 
numbered among those who paid tribute in the 
shape of sincere expressions of thanks for his ser- 
vices to the State. As a sample of his style of 
oratory, the following paragraphs of his speech on 
constitutional reform are excellent : — 

" I have one appeal to make to the members of this 
House. To most of them it does not make a penny's 
difference who carries this State politically two years 
hence. The sun will shine, the grass will grow, and 
business go on the same, whichever political party 
triumphs. This country is lost and saved regularly 
every four years. Let us do right. Let us make a 
record which we can live by and die by, — a record 
which merits the approval of our own consciences and 
of the intelligent future historian who will some day 
write up the record of this General Assembly. No 
political party has triumphed permanently in this 
country. The party which is down to-day is up to- 
morrow. The political caldron of American politics 
is like the ebb and flow of the ocean ; but it is al- 
ways safe to do right, and then, whether success or 



BIOGRAPHY 

defeat await you, you have the approval of your con- 
science. And in the end history will vindicate your 
action." 

He closed vi^ith the following ringing words : — 

" I shall vote for this bill, not because I think it 
will benefit the Democratic party, — I do not think 
that either pohtical party will reap any permanent 
political advantage from a constitutional convention, — 
but I shall vote for this bill because it is right. This 
question rises above all party politics. The State is 
greater than any political party. Our children and 
our children's children have an abiding interest in our 
action to-day. I prefer to stand where the old Roman 
stood, and to do right though the heavens fall." 

During the session of 1891 Mr. Hicks was 
chairman of the House Committee on Woman's 
Suffrage, and reported a bill giving women the 
right to vote on all school matters. He supported 
the report by a speech, and the bill passed the 
House almost unanimously. It became a law, and 
made Connecticut the first State in New England 
to give women the right to vote on school matters. 
He introduced also an amendment to the Consti- 
tution giving all towns of over five thousand inhab- 
itants, an extra representative in the Assembly for 
every 5,000 additional inhabitants. The proposi- 
tion was received with a great deal of approval, 
and is probably the best solution that can be made 
of the present unfortunate condition of affairs in 

9 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

Connecticut, — the small towns' jealousy of the 
large cities. 

During the session of 1895 Mr. Hicks took a 
more active part, as will be seen from an examina- 
tion of the doings of the General Assembly, and 
probably accomplished as much, if not more, than 
any man in the Assembly. 

He introduced a bill providing for a State Chem- 
ist and the examination of all articles of food, 
which resulted in the adoption of a new and very 
valuable law ; and the first report was recently 
made by the State Chemist, showing nearly a 
thousand articles adulterated and sold publicly in 
Connecticut in the way of food and drink. He 
got a law enacted providing for the care and 
custody of bequests in connection with the ceme- 
teries ; also a law in regard to the licenses of 
pawnbrokers, compelling them, under heavy penal- 
ties, to report weekly to the police all goods re- 
ceived in pawn, thereby breaking up all fences or 
means of shielding robberies or thefts. 

He introduced a bill providing for the employ- 
ment of a clerk of bills with additional duties and 
powers, and taking the appointment out of politics. 
This law will be very valuable hereafter in pre- 
venting hasty, unwise, or crude legislation. He 
introduced a resolution in regard to the support 
and maintenance of the East Hartford bridge, 
which led to the longest and most memorable in- 
vestigation ever held before any committee in 
10 



BIOGRAPHY 

Connecticut, and resulted in the repeal of the law, 
relieving the State of Connecticut from the burden 
of half a million dollars on this one bridge, and 
from all attempts hereafter to place similar bridges 
upon the State Treasury, thus saving the State of 
Connecticut a million dollars at a low estimate. 
The bridge was put back upon the towns in the 
vicinity from which it had been taken by the pre- 
vious Assembly, by legislation which it was charged 
was secured largely by bribery. He also introduced 
a resolution calling for an investigation of the 
expenses of the State, A special committee was 
appointed to investigate the matter, and after a 
long hearing they made a most voluminous report, 
sustaining all of Mr. Hicks's claims; and their 
report, if it had been adopted, would have saved 
the State of Connecticut anywhere from one to 
two thousand dollars annually. The Legislature, 
which was overwhelmingly Republican, voted down 
the recommendations of the committee, and got 
out of the matter by referring them to the next 
General Assembly, 

He introduced also a bill taking away the abso- 
lute control of the School Fund by the School 
Fund Commissioner, as there has been gross mis- 
management of the fund at times, and placing the 
control of the loan in the hands of a Board consist- 
ing of the School Fund Commissioner, the Treasurer 
of the State, and the Comptroller. This matter 
was warmly discussed, and bitterly opposed by the 
II 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

School Fund Office before the Legislature; so it 
was, for the time being, defeated. 

Among other measures he introduced the fol- 
lowing : — 

An amendment to the Constitution providing 
that no member of the General Assembly shall 
be eligible to any office requiring confirmation or 
election by one or both branches of the Legislature. 
That would have put a stop to the scandalous con- 
test among members for offices. 

An amendment providing that no bill appro- 
priating public money should be passed until it 
had been printed and on the desks of the members 
for three session days, thus preventing the hasty 
passage of appropriations when the members were 
largely absent or at the closing hours of the ses- 
sion. 

An amendment providing that no more spe- 
cial charters should be granted, but that all such 
companies should be organized under a general 
law, thus relieving the legislators of a vast amount 
of business which is only a detriment to the public 
interests, and doing away also with the necessity 
of a large lobby, which these private charters al- 
ways create. 

It was hardly to be expected that these amend- 
ments would at once be adopted, but in time they 
are sure to be incorporated in the Constitution, 
because they are right. 

For his services in the Legislature, his party 

12 



BIOGRAPHY 

desired to reward him with the nomination for 
Lieutenant-Governor of Connecticut. It seemed 
as if his nomination were certain. Some of the 
papers of the State went so far as to say : — 

" For second place on the ticket, it is given out, as 
if by authority, that Ratchffe Hicks will be the man. 
He is a lawyer of recognized ability and a Democrat 
of the old school. He has the advantage of being 
thoroughly known throughout the State, which is 
more than can be said of some of the men who have 
been mentioned for the place." 

The Congregational Church in Tolland, which 
was built some years ago and for which his grand- 
father contributed liberally, Mr. Hicks, in con- 
nection with others, has lately found great pleasure 
in restoring and modernizing. 

He has established annual prizes for public speak- 
ing at the college where he was educated (Brown 
University), at the Storrs Agricultural College, in 
Mansfield, Tolland County, and at the High School 
in Meriden. 

In 1882 Mr. Hicks became connected with the 
Canfield Rubber Company of Bridgeport. He was 
elected its president, and has since then devoted 
his talents as an executive to the management of 
the concern. When he became associated with it, 
its capital stock was but $10,000. To-day it has a 
capital stock of $250,000, a surplus of as much 
more, while its sales aggregate annually $1,000,000. 
The success of the company under his direction 
13 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

has been often spoken of as one of the most 
remarkable achievements in the manufacturing 
history of New England. It has made a substan- 
tial fortune for Mr. Hicks and its other prominent 
stockholders, and has furnished a comfortable liveli- 
hood to a large number of operatives. 

Cornelius Gardiner. 



14 



SPEECHES IN THE CONNECTICUT 
LEGISLATURE 



SPEECH 

Delivered March i6, 1893, in favor of the Bill 
abolishing Capital Punishment. 

Mr. Speaker and Members of the House of 
Representatives : 

I AM opposed to the majority report of your 
honorable Committee on the Judiciary, and in 
favor of the minority report, in the matter of abol- 
ishing capital punishment ; and with no little hesi- 
tancy I will explain briefly my reasons. 

I think, sir, the title of this bill should be 
amended, or there should be a preamble put into 
it something like this : That all men, rich and 
poor, white and black, native-born and alien. 
Christian and Jew, are entitled to the same rights, 
and shall suffer the same punishments under the 
laws of this ancient and Christian Commonwealth. 

You have never executed in this State a man 
worth $10,000, and never can, no matter what 
kind of a murder he commits. No man who has 
$10,000 and upwards in the bank can be ex- 
ecuted in this State or in any other State in this 
Union. You execute only some poor, unfortunate 
2 17 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

Italian, negro, or Irishman without friends and 
without money. 

The man who killed Jim Fisk walks every day 
up and down Broadway, or lolls in his carriage in 
Central Park. If he had been some poor Italian, 
negro, or Irishman, that man (his name is on 
every one's lips) would have paid the penalty of the 
law; but he is, instead, a living witness of the 
power of money in your boasted courts of justice. 
No criminal who has money enough to hire such 
eloquent and eminent lawyers as the late Samuel 
F. Jones or the late George D. Watrous or the 
late Charles Chapman, can ever be hung in Con- 
necticut. There are too many tricks in the trade, 
too many devices, too many loopholes, too many 
defences, too many excuses, and too much influ- 
ence on judge and jury. 

Thank God, they have never in one hundred 
years hung but one man in that hillside county of 
Tolland which I have in part the honor to repre- 
sent on the floor of this House, and that was such 
a disgusting spectacle that they will not hang 
another man in one hundred years more. He 
was a poor, simple-minded Indian, who went to 
one of your licensed taverns, kept by a good 
Christian Yankee, and bought that infernal stuff 
which transforms men into brutes, fires the passions, 
and robs them of their reason and self-control. 
He went home in that maudlin condition, and killed 
the only friend he had on earth, the woman he 
i8 



ABOLISHING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 

loved as he loved his own life. He was poor and 
penniless, and had to die on the gibbet. The 
Indian died ; but the world moves on, and a little 
later (less than the span of a human Hfe) the 
Supreme Court of this State pronounced such 
hanging judicial murder, as wanting in malice 
aforethought and premeditation, — the necessary 
elements in all murders of the first degree. 

Now, gentlemen, if you had some positive, 
never-failing, all-wise method of administering pun- 
ishment, so that, like the apothecaries' scales, it 
weighed out equal and exact justice to all men, 
there might be some reason in your law. But 
when you stop to consider the poor, imperfect, 
faulty instrument which society has erected under 
the name of a court of justice, then the instincts 
of every honest man revolt against this law. 

How many innocent men have been executed? 
Not all the blood of all the Pharaohs can wipe out 
the crime of the judicial murder of one innocent 
man. Within the past week we read in all the 
papers the dying confession of a murder of a for- 
ester, in England, for which another man was 
executed twenty-five years ago. 

In ancient Greece lawyers were all paid by the 
State, and every person could select his own 
lawyer, the most powerful and the most learned in 
the land, and that lawyer was obliged to try the 
case without tee or reward. The poor man had, in 
their courts of justice, the same advantage as the 
19 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

millionaire. In this enlightened country it is the 
theory or practice of our government, that the 
poor man has no vested rights except the hope of 
that better land, heaven. Nine-tenths of the men 
who have been hung have died for the want of the 
best lawyer. A mortifying shame ! It is the cus- 
tom of your courts, if a criminal is penniless, to 
assign to him some young lawyer who may experi- 
ment with the case, and if the patient dies the 
lawyer lives and learns. I plead for the same laws 
and the same penalties for the Vanderbilt and the 
wandering beggar in the street. Some day it will 
be so. 

It was my fortune, or misfortune, to defend a 
poor criminal, a friendless Swede, some years ago 
in this State. The case was tried before the Hon. 
L. S. Foster, — a man who stood high in the counsels 
of the nation, and ranked as a foremost lawyer in 
the land. He laid down the law to the jury; 
they convicted the man ; he sentenced him to be 
hung as you would a mad dog to be shot. With- 
out compensation I took the case to the Supreme 
Court of this State, to the very court of which Mr. 
Foster was himself a member ; and his associates 
informed him that the law which he laid down 
was neither the law of this State nor of any 
State in the Union, and so the man escaped the 
gallows. 

A few years ago a good citizen of this State went 
to a very prominent lawyer, who ranks to-day 

20 



ABOLISHING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 

among the foremost, having declined the proffered 
nomination of Chief-Justice of this State, and who 
enjoys a national reputation, and he said, " I want 
to invest ^10,000 in a certain business, but I don't 
want to become a partner and risk any more 
money." The lawyer advised him that he was 
perfectly safe. He paid the lawyer for his ser- 
vices, and some few months after that a judg- 
ment was rendered against him for ^50,000, and 
he walked out of court a penniless beggar. It 
is said that the court has been leaning the other 
way since they gave that decision, and that if the 
case were to be tried again, they would decide 
differently. 

A few years ago the judges of "the Supreme 
CovLici o{ Errors" — I have sometimes thought it 
was well named — of this State met in consultation, 
and the judge who was allotted to write the opinion 
brought out his decision and read it as bravely as 
a troubadour. One member of the bench said, 
"Did we vote to decide this case that way? " and 
they all said, " Oh, yes ! " He said, " No ; look at 
your notes," and they found he was right ; so the 
same man came to the next meeting with his 
opinion all written for the other side. 

Now, gentlemen, are you going to compel a 
fellow-man to intnist the most valuable possession 
he holds — his life, so much more valuable, so 
much greater than all earthly possessions and 
contracts and affairs — to the final decision and 
21 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

arbitrament of this weak, faulty, erring creature we 
so often miscall a court of justice, and who so often 
is a travesty on justice? I answer, "No." No 
one has a higher respect for an honest and learned 
judge than myself, but they are all human and 
liable to err. 

In fifty years no man has been hung in Rhode 
Island, but life and property are safer than in Con- 
necticut. In nearly fifty years (I think it is) they 
have hung no man in Maine, but life and property 
are safe there. I might say the same of Michigan. 
I might say the same of that great country of Bel- 
gium across the blue ocean, with its thirty millions 
of people. Why, in all France, with its forty mil- 
lions of people, they execute only two or three men 
a year, and they will soon abandon the practice 
altogether. 

In no other country are life and property held 
at so little value as in the United States, and all 
your executions go for nothing. Nowhere does 
lawlessness triumph as in America, and nowhere 
are so many men executed as here. You used 
formerly to hang men for arson, rape, and burglary 
and for nearly two hundred different offences. 
Does any man claim that the change in the law 
has increased those crimes? Remember that it is 
the certainty and not the severity of punishment 
that prevents crime. The fear of hanging never 
did, and never will prevent a single murder. All 
murderers are controlled by one of two motives, — 

22 



ABOLISHING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 

either they act in passion and don't care what be- 
comes of themselves, or they expect to hide their 
crime and escape punishment. 

We are known as the hanging nation of the 
world. We stand at the head of the list, and, 
as believers in capital punishment, are only sur- 
passed by the pig-tailed citizens of the Celestial 
Empire, the benighted followers of the world- 
renowned heathen teacher, Confucius. 

The unchristian, degrading spectacle of keep- 
ing a human being in suspense for one round year, 
and then filling him with whiskey and slowly drag- 
ging him to the gallows, more dead than alive, is 
no consolation to the dead, but only a torture to 
the living. The Indian is more merciful than the 
Christian, for he inflicts his punishment with in- 
stant death. 

There is no civilized country except the United 
States where they hang negroes to lamp-posts, 
and bum Catholic orphan asylums, and torture 
the negroes with red-hot irons, and break into jails 
and murder the inmates, and then make a hero 
of the leader of the riot, and name a beautiful park 
in his honor, as they did in New Orleans some two 
years ago. 

Oh, shame ! That the sublime doctrines of the 
Christian religion should be so perverted by blind 
and misleading teachers as to picket the world with 
scaffolds. " An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a 
tooth," is a fitting motto to be engraved on the 
23 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

tombstone of a red-painted Indian devil ; but it 
has no place in the accepted tenets of any truly 
natural or revealed religion. 

One word more, and I have done. A human 
life is the creation of an infinite invisible God, and 
He alone who created it has the right to terminate 
it. A father has no right to kill his child ; and 
society has no right to kill one of its members. 
The argument which gives society that right is just 
the same argument which the North American 
Indian uses when he tomahawks a white man, 
because he is intruding on the Indian's land, de- 
stroying his game and his means of living. It is 
sometimes miscalled the law of self-preservation. 
The Hottentot has just as good a right to use that 
argument when he kills a white missionary whom 
he finds piercing the jungles of Africa, and inter- 
fering with his hunting-grounds and his God- 
given rights to existence and to a livelihood. 
Away with all these childish arguments, whether 
they come from the mouth of the Christian legis- 
lator, the savage Indian, or the nude, man-eating 
Hottentot. 

Remember, when you cannot create a human 
life you have no right to take it away. The good 
Lord our Master never taught the doctrine that 
would warrant the execution of one poor criminal. 
Remember that one of the most celebrated English 
preachers of this century has boldly proclaimed 
the doctrine, and supported it by powerful argu- 
24 



ABOLISHING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 

ments, that all criminals are partially insane, and 
that all sin is the result of partial ignorance. 

To the friends of this humane movement I have 
only words of cheer. Be ye not discouraged. 
Remember that the world moves, that this is an 
age of progress, and that, whether we will or no, in 
God's good time all the wrongs and errors of so- 
ciety will be righted. 

And of you, the opponents of this coming re- 
form, I beg, not to try to mete out to every man 
his full and complete punishment in this world, 
but leave something to the final disposition of a 
good, kind God, that rules the universe, the loving 
arbiter and final judge of all men ; who knows the 
secret motives of their hearts, and all the trials and 
temptations which beset poor, erring mortals in 
their pilgrimage through this tempest-tossed earth. 

Christopher Columbus the explorer, George 
Washington the patriot, Abraham Lincoln the lib- 
erator, William E. Gladstone the statesman, have 
taught the world that it cannot live on precedents 
or bygone history or in the caves of the dismal 
past. They have challenged the attention of civil- 
ized men everywhere to the dawning light of some- 
thing more glorious and far better, — the immortal 
future, so full of promise for the bettering of the 
human race. 

The inspiration of the hour prompts me to close 
with the beautiful lines of the greatest and sweetest 
of living English poets, — 
25 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

•* Since tale was kept of human hopes and fears, 
Since first, through mists of eld, we mark Man 

climb 
From flint and bronze to arts and aims sublime, 
Subduing earth and stripping from the sea, 
By lordlier might, its power and mystery ; 
And gaining, race by race, with painful strife, 
Slow steps to Law, and sweeter modes of life." 



APPENDIX. 
/ie/'/y to a Critic. 

New York, May 26, 1893. 

Dear S., — I have received your letter, also the 
letter which you enclosed from a distinguished 
member of Congress from Massachusetts, criticising 
my little speech. 

I notice, with sorrow, that for want of a better 
argument, he quotes a text from Scripture which 
he thinks carries out his idea, to wit : " Whoso 
sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be 
shed." For eighteen hundred years every heresy 
or fanaticism, religious, moral, social, or political, 
has tried to bolster up its cause by some perverted 
text from the Bible ; and every despot to-day, from 
the Czar of Russia to the head of the Mormon 
Church, has got some quotation from the Bible to 
ding in your ears ; and I for one, am tired of it. 
26 



ABOLISHING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 

If this little text can be perverted or strained to 
the interpretation that this member of Congress 
puts upon it, it means also that if a man in a fight 
puts another man's eye out, the court shall order 
the sheriff to put his eye out ; or if he bites a 
man's nose off, the court shall order his nose to 
be bitten off; or, if he knocks out a man's tooth, 
the Court shall order his tooth to be knocked out. 

When we were in good old Brown, we learned 
from Wheatley that there was no argument so effec- 
tive at times as the " Reductio ad absurdum," and 
nothing shows the absurdity of your friend's argu- 
ment so much as to apply it literally to eveiy-day 
life. Besides, our good Lord and Master never 
taught any such abominable doctrine, and no 
verse in the New Testament can be found to prove 
it to have the divine warrant. 

Your distinguished friend says that Harris was 
executed, and that he had plenty of money, and 
that is an argument against my position. My 
answer is simply this : Harris died because he was 
poor and penniless and did not have the best 
lawyer. His case was badly managed from the 
very start to the finish. With Bourke Cochran for 
his lawyer, Harris would to-day be walking the 
streets of New York as free a man as I am. 

In that enlightened and Christian civilization 

which we may expect five hundred years from now, 

we will look for better men ; but to-day nothing 

draws a crowd in America like a dog-fight or a 

27 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

prize-fight ; in Spain, whose people we are so highly 
honoring this year, nothing draws a crowd like a 
bull-fight ; and among Africans, our first cousins, 
nothing draws so great a crowd as to kill, roast, 
and eat a white missionary. 

We live in hopes of better times, and you and I 
will do our little share toward hastening them on. 
For the present we prefer not to be counted with 
the " madding crowd." 

Without impugning the motives of those persons 
who seem to chew their morsel of content over the 
ghastly sacrifice of a human life, we will still believe 
there is something good in every man, and that the 
worst use you can make of a man is to hang him 
on the gallows. 

Yours very truly, 

Ratcliffe Hicks. 



28 



SPEECH 

Delivered May ii, 1893, in favor of the Woman 
Suffrage Bill, giving women the right to vote at 
School Elections. 

Mr. Speaker and Members of the House of 
Representatives: 

Your committee on Woman Suffrage, to whom 
were referred many bills relating to that subject, 
have given this question a patient hearing, and, as 
a result of their deliberations, have reported with 
practical unanimity the bill now pending before 
this House. 

This is a question which, like the ghost in 
Shakspeare's great play, will not down; and if 
you do not settle it right to-day, it will come here 
to vex every succeeding session of the General 
Assembly of Connecticut until it has been settled, 
and settled right. 

I invoke your serious attention to the Httle I 
have to say in favor of the pending bill. 

Since the commencement of recorded time, 
there has been no period of fifty years in the 
history of the world so fruitful of good to the 
human race as the last fifty years. 
29 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

I have not the time to portray, and you have 
not the patience to listen to me while I recite, 
one-half that has been done in fifty years — in art, 
in science, in spreading human comfort, in the de- 
veloping of government, and in establishing the 
rights and redressing the wrongs of the governed 
— in all parts of the civilized world. 

No class in the community has welcomed this 
progress with greater zeal, no class thanks Heaven 
with a prouder heart, and no class has reaped 
greater benefits from all this wonderful progress 
than the women of this land, — our mothers, our 
wives, our sisters, and our daughters. But the tale 
is only half told, the book is only half open, the 
human race — of mankind and of womankind — is 
still in its infancy. Are we to stop where we are? 
Are we to make no more progress? Are we to 
offer the blessings of a free government to all the 
poor and degraded and ignorant of the Old 
World, and to refuse it to our own kith and kin? 
Are not the women of Connecticut as fit to vote, as 
intelligent, as much interested in the fair fame of 
Connecticut as the emigrant who lands at Castle 
Garden — that Babel of languages and storehouse 
for paupers — or as the ignorant and homeless 
negro of the South? 

The whole theory of our government is that it 

depends upon the consent of the governed, and 

that every person — white or black, native or foreign 

born, Jew or Gentile — who has lived to the age of 

30 



WOMAN SUFFRAGE 

twenty-one years and who can comply with certain 
educational requirements, shall have a voice in 
this government. Why limit it to males? Why 
give women no voice in the government under 
which they exist, or in the laws you ask them to 
obey, or in the taxes you compel them to pay, 
or in the control and education of their own 
children ? 

Either the theory of a Republican government 
is wrong, and we should abandon it and establish 
some other form of government not depend- 
ing upon the consent of the governed, or we 
should be just, and carry out our principles to 
the end. 

I am frank to say, I believe in this system of a 
Republican government. I believe in the rule of 
the people, and I believe a Republican system is 
the grandest achievement of the ages. 

I welcome the foreigner, fleeing from the des- 
potic military governments of the Old World. I 
welcome everybody to a lot and share in the 
benign benefits of a free government. There is 
room enough in this great Republic for people 
of all climes and both sexes, and I hope to live 
to see the day when every loyal subject, male and 
female, shall have a voice in the affairs of the 
nation. 

This bill recommended by your committee is so 
small and so little a concession, that we beheved 
it would pass this Legislature unanimously. 
31 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

Women are now, by law in this State, eligible to 
act as members of boards of school visitors, and on 
school committees. Why not go one step further ? 
If they are competent to act in these positions, why 
are they not competent to say who shall fill these 
places ? 

Women act to-day with men in the management 
of churches, hospitals, Sunday-schools, asylums, 
and they are filling all sorts of responsible posi- 
tions in the educational, commercial, and govern- 
mental affairs of the world. They are everywhere 
to be found challenging the respect and admiration 
of their fellow-men, from the Queen of England, 
who has for fifty years ruled with consummate 
ability the proudest and most powerful nation ex- 
isting to-day, down to the quiet woman who travels 
along the humblest walks of daily toil. Their 
abilities are being tested on all the battle-fields of 
life, and the results of their industry and talents are 
among the marvels of the times. Over the centre 
arch of the Brooklyn Bridge should stand the figure 
of that woman to whose mighty genius it owes its 
completion, — the grandest triumph of fifty cen- 
turies in civil engineering. 

But why should I tarry in this matter? Con- 
necticut, slow and conservative as she has always 
been, is still lagging in the onward march of 
progress. It took her fifty years to learn the 
lesson that Thomas Jefferson taught, the separa- 
tion of Church and State, and it took her seventy- 
32 



WOMAN SUFFRAGE 

five years to learn that a property qualification is 
not in harmony with a fi'ee government. 

To-day, school suffrage, under various con- 
ditions, is allowed to women in the following 
States — I beg of you to listen while I read 
the list : Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, 
Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massa- 
chusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New 
Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Texas, 
Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. In Arkan- 
sas and Missouri women may vote (by not sign- 
ing or refusing to sign) on liquor licenses. In 
Kansas women may vote in municipal elections. 
About 60,000 women voted in 1891, and over 
100,000 in 1893, and tolled the knell of crankism 
in that State. In New York women may vote at 
school elections and on questions of water-works, 
paving, grading, draining, street lighting, and minor 
local improvements. In Pennsylvania women 
vote on local improvements by signing or refusing 
to sign petitions therefor. 

Thomas W. Palmer, to whose ability as much as 
to that of any other living man to-day we owe the 
unparalleled success of the Columbian Exposition, 
spoke some years ago in the United States Senate 
as follows : — 

" They cite the physical superiority of man, but offer 
no amendment to increase the voting power of a Sulli- 
van or a Heenan, or to disfranchise the halt, the 
blind, or the sick. They object that many women do 
3 33 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

not desire the suffrage, and that some would not exer- 
cise it. It is probably true, as often claimed, that 
many slaves did not desire emancipation in 1863, 3-"^ 
there are men in most communities who do not 
vote, but we hear of no freedman to-day who asks 
re-enslavement, and no proposition is offered to dis- 
enfranchise all men because some neglect their 
duty. 

" They regard the manly head of the family as its 
only proper representative, but would not exclude the 
adult bachelor sons. They urge disability to perform 
military service as fatal to full citizenship, but would 
hardly consent to resign their own rights because they 
have passed the age of conscription, or question those 
of Quakers, who will not fight, or of professional men 
and civic officials, who, like mothers, are regarded as 
of more use to the State at home. They are dismayed 
by a vision of women in attendance at caucuses at late 
hours of the night; but, doubtless, enjoy their presence 
at routs, balls, and entertainments until the early 
dawn. 

" I share no fear of the degradation of women by 
the ballot. I believe rather that it will elevate men. 
I believe the tone of our politics will be higher, that 
our caucuses will be jealously guarded, and our con- 
ventions more orderly and decorous. I believe the 
polls will be freed from the vulgarity and coarseness 
which now too often surround them, and that the poll- 
ing booths, instead of being in the least attractive 
parts of a ward or town, will be in the most attractive ; 
Instead of being in stables and gin-mills, will be in 
private houses and counting-rooms. I believe the 
character of candidates will be more closely scruti- 
nized, and that better officers will be chosen to make 

34 



WOMAN SUFFRAGE 

and administer the laws. I believe that the casting of 
the ballot will be invested with a seriousness — I had 
almost said a sanctity — second only to a religious 
observance." 

The great Liberal party of England, under the 
leadership of that man who will go down to history 
as the most profound statesman of the nineteenth 
century, William E. Gladstone, has brought for- 
ward in the British Parliament, within the past 
eight weeks, a bill which gives to the women of the 
three kingdoms a full and complete voice in the 
management of all local affairs. 

From the rich mine of English jurisprudence 
our fathers gathered the principles of our Consti- 
tution; and ever since, in subsequent legislation, 
these two great kindred nations have together 
girdled the world with the principles of personal 
liberty, and the rights of the individual man and 
the individual woman. Shall we now part com- 
pany with our Queen sister in the race for human 
progress and the development of mankind? I 
say no. 

In closing, I have but this to say. I appeal to 
every member of this House. Who taught you the 
alphabet ? To whose kind and constant instructions, 
more than all else in the world, do you owe the 
foundation and possibly the completion of your 
education? Who followed you with anxious and 
loving heart that you might be educated and fitted 
to go out and fight the battles of life and be a man 
35 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

among men? And who is doing this same work 
for your children to-day but a woman? 

Give the women what nature fitted them for, 
and what should be theirs by every law, human or 
divine, — a voice in the control and management of 
your schools and in the education of their children, 
and you will never regret it. 



36 



SPEECH 

Delivered June 22, 1893, in favor of the Bill for a 
CoJistitutional Convention. 

Mr. Speaker and Members of the House of 
Representatives : 

I SHALL not attempt to weary this House to-day 
with a long list of statistics to prove the injustice of 
the Constitution under which we are living. You 
are all familiar with those facts. I shall simply at- 
tempt to put the arguments in favor of a Constitu- 
tional Convention, upon such broad and generous 
principles as will appeal to the intelligence and con- 
science of every member of this General Assembly, 
be he Republican or be he Democrat. 

This question is no party question. It is simply 
a question between five hundred foolish men who 
think they see a political advantage to themselves 
in keeping matters as they are now, and eight 
hundred thousand people who are ready and 
willing to see the fair thing done. 

The Puritan created his State after he had first 
established his Church, and every man who par- 
took of the communion had an equal voice in all 
political matters. As time went on, the Puritan, 
37 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

Otherwise known as the Congregational, church 
created towns of nearly equal inhabitants and ter- 
ritory, for the better management of the little local 
town affairs, — the poor, the roads, the schools ; 
but above all, for the support of the Congregational 
church and the dispensing of religious benefits. 
These little towns were simply missionary outposts. 
In order that there may be no misunderstanding 
about this matter, let me read from the most 
learned historian who has ever attempted to write 
the early history of New England : — 

"The Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay settlements 
were founded by Congregational pilgrims in 1620 and 
1628, and others, a few years afterwards, in Massachu- 
setts and Connecticut. Congregationalism gave New 
England the distinctive character it bears in history, 
and, in return, the development of the New England 
churches and the teaching of their pastors gave the 
State Congregationalism as its form. From the ear- 
liest settlement of New England there was a definite 
but peculiar relation between the churches and the 
State. It was neither that in which the State rules the 
Church, nor that in which the Church rules the State, 
but rather a peculiar blending of the two. Townships 
were incorporated with a view to ability to maintain a 
settled ministry, and to the convenience of the people 
in attending public worship. Provision was made by 
law for the support of the pastors and for all necessary 
church expenses." 

The Congregational church — the first, the great- 
est, and the truest Democracy known in all history 
38 



CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 

for more than three thousand years, yea, since the 
early days of Roman and Grecian history, before 
those ancient people became powerful, corrupt, and 
monarchical — never dreamed that these little 
territorial boundaries would be the basis of over- 
throwing the very principles upon which the 
Puritan built his Congregational church, — the 
equality of man in every religious or political 
organization. 

He would have no elders, no bishops, no pres- 
bytery, no superior class, no overruling authority, 
but he trusted everything to the individual man, 
and the humblest layman was as powerful as the 
most learned and eloquent preacher, and every 
little church, however humble, was a republic in 
itself. 

The Puritan fled from the land where the few 
governed the many, and where all the honors of 
Church and State were monopolized by the few, 
to establish on these western shores a pure 
Democracy. 

As time went on, great inequalities have arisen 
in the distribution of population and wealth, until 
we are called upon to take up the cause the Puri- 
tan batded so nobly for, and won, nearly three 
centuries ago. 

Now, the very theory and foundation of this 
ancient Commonwealth were the equality of man in 
making laws, in bearing arms, and in everything that 
pertained to the management of political affairs. 
39 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

Davenport, Hooker, and those heroes who laid 
the foundations of this favored Commonwealth, 
never dreamed that the day would come when 
four hundred and thirty-one inhabitants in the 
town of Union would have an equal voice with 
eighty-six thousand inhabitants in the town of New 
Haven, in making laws, in spending money, and in 
governing the State. If that doctrine had been 
proclaimed three hundred years ago, you would 
have no Commonwealth of Connecticut to-day, but 
every town would have remained an independency. 
Those old Puritans would have torn King Charles's 
Charter into a thousand fragments if it had con- 
tained any such vicious doctrine, for they were men 
cast in a heroic mould, and made no compromises 
with their intelligence or their conscience. 

I ask the opponents of this bill : What do you 
propose to do with this question ? Do you propose 
to fight the inevitable, to oppose the spirit of 
the age, to contend like the Tories of England 
against an outraged people, to trample upon the 
doctrines proclaimed in the cabin of the May- 
flower, and which have made the name of the 
Puritan immortal in history? 

All arguments drawn from the formation of the 
national government are not in this question. It 
is a compromise. It is based upon no just prin- 
ciples, and is the one weak thing in your govern- 
ment, that may — that will, some day — wreck it, 
if it be not changed. 

40 



CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 

That the rotten mining-camp of Nevada with 
its sixty thousand inhabitants has an equal voice in 
the Senate of the United States with the great 
Empire State of New York with its five millions of 
inhabitants and its untold aggregate of wealth and 
of commercial importance, almost makes the bronze 
statue of the Goddess of Freedom which crowns the 
dome of the Capitol at Washington weep ; yea, it 
makes respectable the most tyrannical monarchy on 
the face of the earth to-day ; for all this is done in 
America, hypocritically, under the name of Liberty, 
Equality, and Freedom. 

This is a question purely and simply for the 
State of Connecticut, for Rhode Island, for Massa- 
chusetts, for Virginia, for South Carolina, for Cali- 
fornia : Shall not the people have an equal voice 
in the management of their State affairs, — no 
representatives from rotten boroughs, no shoestring 
districts, but representatives elected by equal pop- 
ulation and contiguous territory ? Any other claim 
is the merest twaddle, and any other position is 
the repudiation of the principles upon which your 
government is founded. It cannot stand the test 
of reason, or the approval of the good men of all 
parties. 

Some selfish political plotters are all the time 
appealing to the small towns to beware of the 
growing power of the cities, yet they are not able 
to point to a single instance since the formation of 
the State when the cities have tried to legislate 
41 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

against the interests of the small towns. The in- 
terests of the towns of Hartford and New Haven 
are identical with those of Union and Prospect, and 
the legislation of the State affects each alike ; the 
laws that are good for one are good for the other. 

Other claims are the specious arguments of 
demagogues ; they have no warrant in fact. 

In every State in the Union, except Connecti- 
cut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, the idea 
of town representatives has been long since 
abandoned, and the members of the House of 
Representatives are elected by districts of equal 
population and adjacent territory, and these same 
demagogues who are opposed to this change will 
be the most blatant of reformers if the Democrats 
should happen to get permanent control in these 
three States. Consistency is a jewel of which they 
know nothing, and statesmanship they reduce to 
political trickery. 

Now, I am not strenuous about this convention 
bill. I have read and re-read the arguments of 
Hon. Henry C. Robinson. The first time I read 
them I admired their beautiful diction, and the 
second time, their powerful logic. The constitu- 
tion of this State is practically correct, except so 
far as it relates to the election of State officers, 
and the election and composition of the Senate 
and the House of Representatives. But if you 
put me in the alternative of nothing or a constitu- 
tional convention, I shall vote for a constitutional 
42 



CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 

convention ; and so I hope, and so I believe, will a 
large majority of this House. 

A single word more, and I have done : The 
political advantages to be gained or lost by an 
amendment to the Constitution of this State are 
not of a feather's weight. Connecticut has been a 
close State, politically, for one hundred years, and 
will continue to be close for one hundred years 
longer. No man can prophesy two years ahead 
what will be the political complexion of this State. 
The result of the election (I own it with shame) 
is determined frequently, as every sensible man 
knows, by the size of the bank account of the 
several State committees. 

Nothing has done so much to make this State 
corrupt as those small towns where a few hundred 
dollars determines the election of a United States 
senator or the State officers, and the control of 
the political patronage of the State. 

I have one appeal to make to the members of 
this House. To most of the members it does not 
make a straw's difference who carries this State 
politically two years from now. The sun will shine, 
the grass will grow, and business will go on the 
same whichever political party triumphs. This 
country is lost and saved regularly every four 
years. Let us do right, let us make a record that 
we can live by and die by, that merits the ap- 
proval of our own consciences, and of the intelli- 
gent future historian who will some day write up 
43 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

the record of this General Assembly. No party 
has permanently triumphed politically in this coun- 
try. The party that is down to-day is up to-mor- 
row. The political caldron of American politics is 
like the ebb and the flow of the ocean ; but there 
is one thing it is always safe to do, and then, 
whether success or defeat awaits you, you have the 
consciousness of having done the right thing, and 
in the end history will vindicate your action. 

The best men of both parties are practically 
agreed in this matter, and there can be but one 
issue to this contest. "The mills of God grind 
slowly, yet they grind exceeding small." 

No man and no combination of men is power- 
ful enough to lead successfully any political party 
against this mighty reform movement. The intel- 
ligent young Republican voters in the great cities 
of New Haven, Hartford, Meriden, New Britain, 
Bridgeport, Middletown, Waterbury, Rockville, 
New London, feel the injustice of this present sys- 
tem as much, if not more, than the Democratic 
party, for it disfranchises them for a lifetime from 
any part or voice in the management of the State 
affairs. I know full well that if this General As- . 
sembly fails in its duty, another General Assembly 
will assemble in these courtly legislative halls, on 
January, 1895, which will do the people's bidding, 
and right the crying shame of the hour. 

At the opening session of this General Assembly 
I introduced a constitutional amendment that 
44 



CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 

secured to every town one representative, and 
an additional representative for every five thousand 
inhabitants, beheving this would be a great im- 
provement on the present system. You have 
rejected that proposition. We asked for " bread " 
and you have given us a " stone." 

A few men would rather throw this Constitu- 
tion and the whole system of our government into 
the maelstrom of political warfare, than yield to 
the demands of the majority of the people of this 
State. This is a strange position. It has only one 
parallel, — the man who hoped to go through the 
whirlpool of Niagara in a barrel. But he was 
smart enough to send his dog in the barrel first ; 
and so you send your plurality amendment through 
ahead, hoping thereby to quiet the demands of an 
incensed people for a constitutional revision. 

The burning question of our State to-day is not 
the rights of the colored man, or the repeal of the 
Sherman Act or of the McKinley Bill, but it is 
whether Republican principles shall triumph, or 
whether two hundred American citizens in New 
Haven shall not have any more political power 
than one citizen in Union, While we live under 
a government that is Republican and Democratic 
in principles, it is practically the most abomi- 
nable oligarchy in existence to-day the wide world 
over ; and while we profess Republican principles, 
we are the biggest political hypocrites recorded in 
history, 

45 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

Democrats and Republicans alike are respon- 
sible for the present state of affairs. There have 
been times when the Democrats have had full 
authority in the General Assembly and could have 
righted these wrongs, but we have been cursed, as 
you have been, with a lot of men with about as 
much political sagacity as a mule. They did not 
dare to do right for fear it would hurt the party. 
Most of these men, thank God, are in heaven 
to-day ; the rest are still occasionally seen in 
Democratic conventions. 

If you can succeed much longer in defeating 
this honest uprising of the people, if the majority 
are not to rule in this State, then I await with 
pleasure the hour when, under the leadership of 
another Parnell, the thwarted and checkmated 
majority shall stop the whole wheels of legislation, 
and paralyze the public business, as happened in 
England, when the proud English nation stood at 
bay, and were obliged to give an unwilling ear to 
the wrongs of Ireland. 

This will be my final message to the General 
Assembly of 1893, for never again do I intend to 
intrude upon your deliberations, and I want to 
thank you, one and all, for the kindness you have 
extended to me. 

To my Democratic friends who expect to reap 
some political advantages from this proposed con- 
stitutional convention, and to my Republican 
friends, who fear disaster to their party from such a 
46 



CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 

convention, — to one and all I say, I beg of you to 
remember that while " man proposes, God dis- 
poses." It is as true of nations as of individuals, 
that 

" There 's a divinity that shapes our ends. 
Rough-hew them how we will." 

All history, ancient and modern, is studded and 
blazoned with events showing the short-sightedness 
of the vast majority of political schemes and 
actions ; for in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred 
the evil that was foretold never really happened, 
and the good that was expected was never fully 
realized. 

When the French arms went down on that fated 
battlefield of Sedan in the Franco-German War, 
and apparently the Germans triumphed, it was, in 
fact, the greatest victory ever won by Frenchmen. 
It was the death-knell to Napoleonism. Over its 
ashes the French people have been enabled to 
erect a republic ; and never were they so strong, 
so prosperous, and so much a menace to Germany 
as they are to-day. 

What the Frenchmen could not do, Bismarck 
and King William, in the hands of an overruling 
Providence, did for them. 

The Republican party contended for negro suf- 
frage, and won, and without it they would not be in 
supreme control in the national government to-day. 
Neither do all the foreigners remember when they 
47 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

cast their ballots how the Democratic party fought 
and went through the slough of political despon- 
dency in its struggle against Knownothingism. The 
greatest victory won by the South in that awful 
war of the Rebellion, and the greatest blessing 
ever conferred on them was when they surrendered 
at Appomattox, and returned to help rule the 
government they had once hoped to destroy. 

The Republican party carried through trium- 
phantly the McKinley bill; but the manufacturer 
forgot his benefactor, and the Republican party 
passed into a minority. 

I shall vote for this bill, not because I think it 
will benefit the Democratic party, for I do not 
think either political party will reap any permanent 
political advantages from a constitutional conven- 
tion, but I shall vote for this bill because it is 
right. 

This question rises above all party politics. The 
State is greater than any political party. Your 
children and your children's children have an 
abiding interest in your action to-day. 

I prefer to stand where the old Roman stood, 
and " to do right, though the heavens fall." 



48 



SPEECH 

Delivered January i6, 1895, ^n regard to the 
East Hartford Bridge. 

I TOOK the liberty to introduce this resolution 
on the opening day of this session of the General 
Assembly. 

The guns were then just announcing the inaugu- 
ration of the present distinguished Governor ''of 
this State, and I have since regretted my intrusion 
upon the happy hours of that, to many of you 
festive day. ' 

But the boom of that cannon is now slowly 
reverberating and dying out down among the hills 
of Middlesex County, and it is time that we enter 
upon the serious business of this session ; and I 
know of no business more serious than the matter 
embraced in this resolution. 

It is not the object of this resolution to investi- 
gate any scandal connected with the passage of 
the law under discussion. 

That was the business of the Legislature of 

1893; and when Luzon B. Morris declined to call 

that General Assembly together, the acts of its 

members passed beyond the paJe of legislative 

4 49 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

investigation, and are only amenable to tlie bar 
of criminal justice and to the forum of public 
opinion. 

To Luzon B. Morris fell an opportunity which 
falls to but few men in this world ; for by one 
stroke of the pen he could have summoned the 
Legislature of 1893, and in one day they would 
have wiped out this law. They would have blotted 
from history, and largely from memory, the awful 
scandal that surrounds the passage of this law, and 
they would have saved the State of Connecticut 
several hundred thousand dollars, and, in the end, 
perhaps several millions. 

But that day has gone. That golden oppor- 
tunity has slipped away, and we have only to do 
with the present. 

Now I ask your attention to the law itself. A 
more crude, incomplete, and unsatisfactory law 
can nowhere be found in legislative annals. 

Here are two men, under no bonds, under 
no obligation to make any report to the Gen- 
eral Assembly or any one of their doings, with 
unlimited power (as they say) to expend the 
money of the State to any amount they may see 
fit. 

Such powers, I venture to say, were never before 
conferred upon two men by any legislative body 
in the great sisterhood of States. If they can 
build an iron bridge, they can build a stone 
bridge; if they can build a bridge with a forty- 
50 



THE EAST HARTFORD BRIDGE 

foot driveway, they can build one with a hundred- 
foot driveway ; if they can spend three hundred 
thousand dollars, they can spend a million dollars, 
and nobody can ask them, "Why do you thus?" 
Again, there is no limit in this bill to the amount 
they shall charge for their services, either past, 
present, or future, and they can draw from the 
treasury of the State ^500 or ^5,000 a year, as 
they see fit. 

Now, I am not here to dispute their right to do 
anything. Everybody in Connecticut, however, 
outside of some insane asylum, did suppose that, 
before they attempted such a large expenditure of 
the public money, they would come to the Legis- 
lature and state the facts about the bridge, and 
show their plans and ask for an appropriation. 

But, for once, the people got left. It is said that 
the two have obtained the opinion of some law- 
yer indorsing their right to go on and build this 
bridge. If they have paid anything for an opinion 
on their powers and rights under that law, I can 
only say, in the words of an old adage, " the fool 
and his money are soon parted." 

If there is any doubt about the construction of 
a law, there is only one opinion worth having, and 
that is the opinion of the Supreme Court. All 
other opinions are only guesswork, leaps in the 
dark ; and the more of them you have the less you 
know. 

Some years ago five men, the flowers of the bar 
51 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

of Connecticut, gave a written opinion about an 
Act of the General Assembly of Connecticut, and 
the Supreme Court said to the unfortunate litigant, 
" You paid your money for nothing, and the opin- 
ion they gave is not worth the paper it is written 
on." Even to-day the bar of Connecticut looks 
to those same lawyers as oracles of law, just as a 
Mussulman looks to Mecca for his religion. 

If it is the settled policy of the State to build 
this bridge at East Hartford, how are you going 
to refuse the member from Enfield when he asks 
for a bridge for Enfield, and the same for the 
member from Windsor Locks, and the member 
from Middletown, and the member from Haddam, 
and the member from Saybrook ? And when you 
have gotten all these bridges built, how can you 
refuse to build bridges over the Housatonic, the 
Naugatuck, the Thames; and where is this thing 
to end? Instead of spending $300,000, you will, 
in the end, spend somewhere from five to ten 
million dollars. I think it would be wise to go to 
the people of this State, the fountain of all author- 
ity, and learn their wishes, and for that reason I 
have introduced a constitutional amendment rela- 
tive to the care and maintenance of bridges over 
navigable streams ; and if the people wish to 
assume this extraordinary burden, and revolu- 
tionize the whole course of legislation in this State 
for two hundred years, let them say so. 

How are you going to pay for the East Hartford 
52 



THE EAST HARTFORD BRIDGE 

Bridge and any other bridges you may build? 
Are you going to restore the State tax and com- 
pel the farmers over in Tolland, Windham, and 
Litchfield counties, and other portions of the State, 
to pay the savings of a whole year — ^lo, $20, 
^40, $100 — for a bridge that they will not even 
once see, perhaps, in all their lives, and that is of 
no more use to them than the celebrated Bridge 
of Sighs in mediseval Venice? If not, are you 
going to lay this burden on the railroads, the life 
insurance companies, and the savings-banks of 
Connecticut ? If you are, a hundred such bills as 
my friend Mr. Judson has introduced will be use- 
less to protect you from the hordes that will pour 
into this Capitol building. Every member will 
need a Catling gun and a corps of trained physi- 
cians to resist the onslaught, and keep himself in 
fighting trim. 

What are you going to do, if you are determined 
to build these bridges? 

I see but two things to do. Appoint a commis- 
sion and assess the expenses of building these 
bridges partly on the town benefited and, possibly, 
partly on the State of Connecticut. Or issue a 
low three per cent bond and charge enough toll 
to parties using these bridges to pay the interest 
and the actual expenses, as is done at the Brook- 
lyn Bridge. 

Now, I appeal to every member of this House to 
do his own thinking, and, if he does not know how 
53 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

to vote, to go home and ask his constituents how 
they want him to vote. 

One of the most distinguished, most reputable, 
and most popular citizens of the city of Hartford 
has said to me within forty-eight hours that he 
hoped this horrid, barn-like architectural blot 
would never span the Connecticut River ; and he 
said that if it were left to the citizens of Hartford, 
they would cheerfully contribute towards the con- 
struction of a bridge over this popular driveway 
without crucifying the gocd taste of every citizen 
of this world-renowned, aesthetic city of Hartford. 
And he said, furthermore, that the building of this 
bridge is not the work of the citizens of Hartford ; 
for they realize that if this becomes the settled 
policy of the State, they will eventually pay into the 
treasury of the State in taxes far more than enough 
to build three such bridges. 

And now, Mr. Speaker, I realize too well how 
weak and powerless I am in this General Assembly 
in all matters that have any political bearing; but, 
sir, this is a question which rises above all party 
lines, and concerns all alike. I am not here to 
antagonize the interests of any section of the State, 
but I am here to do my sworn duty to all the 
people of the State of Connecticut. 

Permit me, sir, to add that I have determined 
to do all that lies within my feeble power to re- 
move the opprobrium and censure that have at- 
tached lately to the legislation of this State ; and 
54 



THE EAST HARTFORD BRIDGE 

to do more, — to assist you, and the party you so 
honorably represent, to add a golden page to the 
history of the good old State of Connecticut. 

And to you, sir, and the party to which you be- 
long, will attach the greater part of the honor and 
the glory of such wise and beneficent legislation. 

I want such legislation that when, at the closing 
hours of this General Assembly, we leave these 
legislative halls, we can leave them amid the 
plaudits of nearly a million grateful people. 



55 



SPEECH 

Delivered March 6, 1895, in Favor of Retrench- 
ment of Public Expenses. 

Mr. Speaker : 

When every successful business man, and even 
every prosperous manufacturing company in Con- 
necticut to-day, is obliged to examine carefully 
into his or its expenses, reduce salaries and wages 
where practicable, and exercise the greatest econ- 
omy to meet the demoralized condition of the 
business interests of this country, it would seem 
proper that all the officers of the State of Connec- 
ticut also should exercise similar economy in the 
expenditure of the State money, and that this 
General Assembly should take some action to 
bring about the desired result. If there is any 
member of this General Assembly who has acquired 
a fortune, he has only acquired it by fnigality and 
industry. It is not what a man or a State spends, 
but what it saves, that makes both of them rich. 
Let us introduce into affairs of the State of Con- 
necticut some of the ordinary rules that govern 
successful private concerns. 
56 



RETRENCHMENT OF PUBLIC EXPENSES 

We are confronted with a dilemma ; for, accord- 
ing to the reports of the Treasurer and making 
a comparison with the usual expenses of the State, 
we find that the State of Connecticut is daily run- 
ning behind considerable over ^700, and if there 
cannot be a saving or a retrenchment in public 
expenditures, then, necessarily, we must have an 
increase of taxation. 

You will find, upon examination, that the annual 
expenses of the State of Connecticut have in- 
creased in the last eight years over $600,000, and 
without having been contracted for or devoted to 
any extraordinary work. Is it not time to cry halt 
and pay as we go ? 

The to\vns and cities in the State of Connecticut 
owe now about $20,000,000, and they are gradu- 
ally increasing that indebtedness yearly instead of 
reducing it, so that it takes a miUion dollars an- 
nually out of the pockets of the tax-payers of the 
State of Connecticut to pay simply the interest on 
what these towns and cities owe. This is $400,000 
more than we pay for the entire support of the 
unfortunate poor and indigent of the State, 
and nearly as much as all our public schools cost 
us. 

It is $10 to every man with a family of six, or, 
to state it another way, $6 to every voter ; and as 
in many cases people pay no taxes, the burden 
only becomes more onerous upon those who do 
pay them. 

57 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

In the last twenty years there has grown up 
in this State a system of largesses which has ahnost 
become a law, and also there has been created a 
large number of commissions or boards with almost 
unlimited powers in the expenditure of the public 
money. 

Their names are legion, and their demands for 
additional money grow alarmingly with every pass- 
ing year. They are the Shylocks of the State ; 
and the highest qualification of a member of the 
General Assembly is that he can say no to these 
insatiate demands for public funds, and stick to it. 
There is no one to call them to an account, there 
is no one to question their expenditures, and the 
only question they ever seem to ask is, " How 
much will the people stand?" 

Governors, treasurers, comptrollers come and 
go, and, with one or two rare exceptions, they 
never seem to worry themselves about the expen- 
diture of the public money, or about the interests 
of the tax-payers of the State. 

I hold in my hand a letter from a former treas- 
urer of this State, a Republican in politics, and a 
financier of great ability, who has written to me 
urging the importance of contracting the expendi- 
tures of the State of Connecticut. 

I do not know that anything can be accomplished 

by this resolution, but it will do no harm to try it. 

I believe there can be easily discovered an annual 

saving of from fifty to one hundred thousand dol- 

58 



RETRENCHMENT OF PUBLIC EXPENSES 

lars. I have not time to allude to many of the 
extravagances of the State, but will refer to a few 
as a sample of what I mean. Some of them I do 
not care to allude to, for fear of stirring up a 
hornet's nest. 

There are some expenditures in the last report of 
the Comptroller which seem perfectly outrageous. 
You will find that it cost over ^30,000 to pay the 
running expenses of the Senate in 1893, — this is, 
in addition to their salaries and railroad fares, 
over $1,000 for every member; while the running 
expenses of the House of Representatives, with 
two hundred and sixty-odd members, and tran- 
sacting more than three-fourths of the legislative 
business of the State, cost only $28,000. If it is 
said that the Senate of 1893 was Democratic, my 
answer is that they were only following in the foot- 
steps of their predecessors ; and I will also add that 
in my opinion they poorly represented and poorly 
repaid the party that was kind enough to put them 
there. 

You will find by reading the Comptroller's re- 
port, that it cost over $20,000 to print the Hotch- 
kiss report of the labor bureau of this State, while 
you will find that to print the report of the Bank 
Commissioner it cost about $3,500. It is safe to 
say that $15,000 of the public money might just as 
well have been spent in fireworks as in printing 
that report. With this money you could have 
built three or four neat, pretty country churches or 
59 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

chapels, and consecrated them to the worship and 
service of God. 

You will find that the printing bills of the State 
have doubled and trebled and quadrupled in 
eight years, and much of the matter printed is of 
no more value than the autumn leaves that carpet 
your foi'ests. There is the same marvellous ratio 
of increase in the expenditure of some of the 
boards or commissioners of the State without any 
adequate remuneration, while the wealth and pop- 
ulation have only shown a slight increase. In 
thirty-odd years the expenses of the State have 
grown to be eight times as great as in i860. 
Have the property and income of the farmers, the 
professional, the business men, the tax-payers, 
grown eight times as great as in i860? 

Listen to this statement and you will need no 
more convincing proof of the truth of what I am 
saying : — 

Total Expenses of Connecticut. 

i860 $217,149.45 

1870 820,430.48 

1886 1,308,859.11 

1894 1,918,677.55 

Judicial Expenses. 

i860 $85,764.56 

1870 212,378.25 

1880 256,598.93 

1894 382,691.44 

60 



RETRENCHMENT OF PUBLIC EXPENSES 

Military Expenses. 

i860 $21,619.86 

1870 97,000.00 

1880 113,097.49 

1894 190,411.94 

Grand list of i860 $254,742,695 

Grand list of 1893 416,323,252 

See how, while the grand list of the State has 
only doubled in thirty years, you are expending 
eight times as much as you were thirty years ago, 
— more than ten dollars to every voter, while 
formerly you spent only two dollars to a voter. 

You will find, on examining the report of the 
comptroller, that the salaries, fees, and perquisites 
of some of the officials of this State are something 
fabulous. One man, occupying not a very high 
order of office, is said to have an annual income 
of over $15,000; and many men in the last few 
years, in this State, have been receiving annually 
thousands of dollars from the State treasury for 
services of a very ordinary kind. 

A few years ago, the greatest philanthropist and 
public benefactor that the State of Connecticut 
has ever produced was at a gathering of business 
associates at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York 
City, at a conference in which he was to invest 
several hundred thousand dollars in developing 
the manufacturing interests of Connecticut; and 
after the conference he went out into Broadway, 
61 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

and walking down the street, he said to my infor- 
mant that he thought he would buy a pear. He 
stopped, and asked the price, and they told him 
it was ten cents. He said it was too much, and 
went without his pear. That man gave a million 
dollars away, while living, for the education and 
improvement of the unfortunate colored people of 
the South. It is an old Scotch proverb that " the 
spendthrift is never a generous man." 

Now, the State of Connecticut is a rich State. 
It is perfectly willing to pay for everything it has, 
and for all the services it receives, all that they are 
worth, and expects to pay a little more ; but the 
State of Connecticut can ill afford to pay two or 
three times more than the services or the thing is 
worth. There are legitimate expenses of the 
State, and to those I do not object ; but there are 
illegitimate expenses, and they should all be 
stopped. There are some expenditures of the 
State that are absolutely wicked and are only one 
door from pure robbery, and in any private com- 
pany would result in the immediate discharge of 
the responsible employee. There are, generally, 
no bigger and more wanton spendthrifts than the 
public servants who handle the people's money. 
Men are here crying for appropriations as if 
money ran down hill in this State. There is no 
better place to commence to practise frugality and 
economy than beneath this gilded dome. 

There are thousands of men out of employment 
62 



RETRENCHMENT OF PUBLIC EXPENSES 

in Connecticut to-day. Our industries are strug- 
gling against a sluggish and an adverse market, and 
against a competition such as they have never 
known before. The United States has lost its hold 
on the markets of the world in the two great staples, 
cotton and wheat, that made us rich and brought 
the hoarded gold of Europe to our shores, and the 
South and West are on the verge of bankruptcy. 
We are one great family of States, and Connec- 
ticut must suffer with the rest. We are fast 
becoming, as a nation and a State, involved in 
indebtedness, and will soon be the greatest inter- 
est-paying and debt-owing nation in the world. 

It is estimated that it takes two hundred million 
dollars in gold, annually, to pay the interest and 
the dividends on what we owe to the capitalists of 
Europe, and this represents so much taken from 
the pockets of the already over-loaded tax-payers 
of America. 

All that Grover Cleveland and a hundred Con- 
gresses can do, cannot give us back the markets 
of the world. Frugality and industry are the only 
sure roads to national and State prosperity. 

Before we lay a State tax, let us remember that 
every dollar that the great majority of the tax- 
payers in Connecticut pay is so much, not less of 
luxuries, but of the ordinary comforts of life to 
himself and his family. Do not forget it. Over 
on these hillside farms it now takes the economies 
of a whole year to pay their taxes and the interest 
63 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

on their mortgages, and some men would still add 
to their burdens. 

A one-mill tax would raise ^416,000, which 
would, at the rate we are going, just about pay the 
yearly deficiencies of the State treasury, but would 
not pay for the East Hartford Bridge, and other 
appropriations voted in 1893 but not yet paid. 
This means $50,000 annually to Hartford, $54,000 
to New Haven, $54,000 to Bridgeport, $13,000 to 
Meriden, $12,000 to Waterbury, $14,000 to Nor- 
wich, $9,000 to New London, $9,000 to Middle- 
town, and it also means to Tolland County $8,000, 
to Windham County $18,000, to Litchfield County 
$28,000, to Middlesex County $19,000, to Fair- 
field County $100,000, to New London County 
$37,000, to New Haven County $106,000, to 
Hartford County $97,000 ; and this, gentlemen, is 
in addition to all the other taxes that your con- 
stituents are paying. 

Remember that this does not pay up the defi- 
ciency of nearly half a million dollars for the past 
two years, as the receipts fell that amount below 
the expenditures. 

We shall hardly be true to the recognized and 
well-estabhshed reputation of the people of Con- 
necticut for thrift and intelligence if we do not do 
something to bring order out of financial chaos, to 
bring the expenses of the State within its income, 
and to relieve the tax-payers of Connecticut, in 
these hard times, from any more extraordinary 
64 



RETRENCHMENT OF PUBLIC EXPENSES 

burdens. I should not have risen to say one word 
if I did not know that I voiced the sentiments of 
every banker, of every manufacturer, of every 
merchant, and of every tax-payer in this State. 

For these reasons I have introduced this reso- 
lution, for no more important business can come 
before the Legislature than the pregnant and vital 
question of economy and retrenchment in public 
expenditures. 

My great ambition is that this General Assembly 
shall live in history as one of the wisest, most 
honest, and economical Assemblies that have ever 
met in this ancient Commonwealth to do the 
people's bidding. 



65 



SPEECH 

Delivered March 28, 1895, ^'^ Favor of the Bill 
relieving the New York, New Haven, and 
Hartford Railroad fro 7}i Double Taxation. 

Mr. Speaker and Members of the House of 
Representatives : 

I WISH to State briefly the reasons which will 
control my action in this matter. The Judiciary 
Committee are unanimously of the opinion that 
this bill should pass, and thus release the New 
York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad Com- 
pany from what is, indisputably, a double taxation, 
— from paying taxes upon property that is being 
taxed in other States. 

Every newspaper in Connecticut heartily ap- 
proves of this bill, and every citizen, every tax- 
payer in Connecticut is in favor of it, with one 
bare exception, — Mr. Goodwin, of East Hartford. 
And his objection is not so much to this particular 
bill. It is because he thinks some years ago this 
railroad did not do exactly as he claims the law 
requires that it should have done. 

The State of Connecticut has had many faith- 
ful and honest treasurers, and I shall presume 
66 



DOUBLE TAXATION 

that they have done their duty by the State of 
Connecticut. 

I shall take no part iii the long and acrimoni- 
ous contest that has been going on for years 
between Mr. Goodwin and the Consolidated Rail- 
road Company. 

I am here to do right as between the State of 
Connecticut and all parties in interest. I have 
made some investigations on my own account, and 
I am satisfied that the Consolidated Railroad Com- 
pany are paying more than their just proportion 
of the taxes of this State, and I await with interest 
any candid reply to the figures that I am about to 
give. 

I am not here to call names or to criticise any 
man's motives, or to indulge in any personalities, 
but I am here to argue this matter, as I propose 
to do every other matter which comes before this 
General Assembly, on a high and lofty plane of 
reason and of solid facts. Every person and every 
interest which have suffered or are suffering an 
injury which no other court can redress, have a 
right to appeal to this General Assembly, — the 
court of the last appeal. 

I make the total cash value of this railroad com- 
pany to be $45,620,884.99 for the entire length 
of 248^^0^ miles, and there are in the State of 
Connecticut i66-f\j\ miles, making the real cash 
value of so much of this railroad as lies within the 
State of Connecticut to be $30,544,659.70. These 
67 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

figures I gathered from the reports of your Rail- 
road Commissioners, and from the reports of this 
company to its o^\'n stockholders, and I have also 
been aided by experts not in the employ of this 
railroad company. The portion of railroad lying 
in New York State costs more per mile than the 
same number of miles in Connecticut, but I have 
made no difference in my calculations on that 
account. 

Now, a one per cent tax on so much of this 
property as lies within the State of Connecticut 
would raise $305,446.50, which is the fair rate of 
taxation of all property in Connecticut, where it is 
assessed at its full value, as in the city of Bridge- 
port, and many other places in the State. 

Under your present system of taxing the rail- 
roads of this State, this company pays into the 
treasury on that same property, $535,049.85, an 
excess of taxation above the proportion that all 
other property pays of $229,603.25, showing that 
this company is paying one and three-fourths per 
cent on the full cash value of its property. In 
ninety-nine towns out of a hundred in this State 
the property is not assessed for more than one-half 
to two-thirds of its full value, which makes the 
burden which this company is carrying still more 
onerous, paying as it is one and three-fourths per 
cent upon the full value of the road. 

This company paid for the year ending Sept. 
20, 1894, twenty-eight per cent of the entire rev- 
68 



DOUBLE TAXATION 

enues of the State of Connecticut, and forty per 
cent of the total taxes paid by corporations, includ- 
ing insurance companies, savings-banks, express 
companies, telephone companies, and all other 
kinds of corporations. 

The mutual insurance companies and the savings- 
banks of the State pay from one-fourth to three- 
fourths of one per cent. The six telegraph and 
telephone companies and the three express com- 
panies pay less than five per cent on their gross 
receipts in this State, while the Consolidated Rail- 
road Company pays more than twelve and one-half 
per cent on its total gross receipts in Connecticut. 

Again, if you look at the earnings of the different 
railroads of the State, you will find that the Con- 
soHdated Railroad pays more largely in proportion 
to its earnings than any other railroad in the State. 
This railroad for the year ending June 30, 1893, 
earned about sixty-nine per cent of the total amount 
earned by steam railroads, and paid about seventy- 
four per cent of the taxes paid by these railroads 
into the treasury. The New York and New England 
Railroad earned twenty-four per cent and paid 
twenty-two and one-half per cent of the taxes. 
The New London and Northern Railroad earned 
over two and one-half per cent and paid less than 
two and one-half per cent of the taxes ; and the 
Philadelphia, Reading, and New England Railroad 
earned nearly four per cent, and paid less than 
one per cent of the taxes. 
69 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

Now, from these figures which I give to you, I 
make the statement, without fear of contradiction, 
that this railroad company pays more in taxes every 
year than any other property in this State ; far 
more in proportion than the manufactories in 
Bridgeport, Waterbury, Meriden, or WilUmantic 
are paying, and far more than the property of any 
member of this General Assembly, I care not from 
where he comes, or what kind of business he is 
engaged in. 

It would be a sorry day if this company should 
come here and ask that all these laws taxing rail- 
roads should be repealed, and that they should 
be allowed to have their property in the several 
towns through which their lines run assessed the 
same as your property and bear the same taxes, 
the same as the railroads in Rhode Island are 
taxed. 

The Supreme Court, the highest tribunal of this 
State, in an elaborate opinion written by that emi- 
nent jurist, Elisha Carpenter, the greatest jurist and 
perhaps the greatest man that Windham County 
has produced in our day, and in an opinion con- 
curred in by the Hon. Lafayette S. Foster and 
the Hon. James Phelps, has blazed the history of 
this State with the incontrovertible fact that this 
railroad has always been paying more than its just 
proportion of the taxes of the State. These are 
their words : " We think, therefore, it is safe to 
assume that taxation upon railroad property is 
70 



DOUBLE TAXATION 

considerably above the average rate of taxation 
throughout the State." (40 Conn. 494.) And 
the Supreme Court of this State never writes any- 
thing in anger or in haste, but only after the most 
mature and careful investigation, for it knows full 
well that what it writes becomes a part of the 
recorded history of this State, and will stand there 
long after its present members and all of us sleep 
beneath the sod. 

If the Meriden Britannia Company, the Russell 
and Erwin Manufacturing Company, and other 
prosperous manufacturing companies in this State 
were taxed the same as this railroad company is, 
on the market value of their stock, instead of on 
the value of their property, it would double, triple, 
and quadruple their present taxes. 

It is a good Christian motto to •'* Do unto others 
as you would that they should do unto you ; " and 
let us be just to this railroad that comes here 
to-day and puts its case on its naked merit";-, and 
refuses to spend a dollar in the lobby, or in secur- 
ing the vote of a single member of this Legislature. 
I cannot help thinking that the man who votes 
against this righteous bill is sinning against light. 
Let your judgment and conscience be your only 
guide, and I beg of you to follow the teachings of 
these illustrious judges, to sustain the unanimous 
report of the Judiciary Committee, and not to 
vote in prejudice or in ignorance. An enlight- 
ened public sentiment will approve of your action. 
71 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

While I am here I shall try to do my duty to 
the State of Connecticut; but the longer I stay, 
I can say truthfully, the more I come to prefer 
the privacy of a life exempt from public cares and 
annoyance, and to think as Shakespeare has so 
aptly said, — 

*' And this our life, exempt from public haunt, 

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in everything." 



72 



SPEECH 

Delivered January 22, 1895, on presenting a Reso- 
lution appointing a Comtnission on the Revision 
of the Constitution. 

Mr. Speaker: 

I AM not SO crazy as to expect to obtain from 
this Legislature aught that will be of any value 
to the unfortunate party to which I belong. I 
know how useless it is to hope for anything from 
a Legislature so overwhelmingly Republican and 
in a State giving such an enormous Republican 
majority. 

We on this side of the House are like the holy 
nuns, who, when they join their sacred order, 
renounce all the pomp and glory of this world. 
We know that they are not for us. 

But there are many amendments to the Consti- 
tution, upon which all good men are agreed, that 
would tend to protect the corporate interests of 
the State, to advance the interests of the laboring 
masses, to facilitate the administration of justice, 
and to promote the welfare and growth of the State 
we all love so well. 

It is eighty years since this Constitution was 
adopted. At that time there were no railroads in 
73 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

the State, no steamboats ploughing the waters of its 
rivers and bays, no life insurance companies, no 
savings-banks to speak of. Meriden was a mud- 
hole, New Britain a sterile farm. The whole char- 
acter of the State has changed in eighty years. 

I sat down to read the Constitution the other 
day, and one-third is obsolete. We wish to make 
the Constitution in harmony with the Constitutions 
of our sister States and with the progressive ideas 
of the nineteenth century. 

A majority of this committee are among the 
keenest and best men of the Republican party, 
and it would seem as if they could be trusted ; but 
beyond all that, this commission must submit their 
views to this General Assembly, and every man 
here has a vote and can say " yes "or " no " on 
any and every question submitted. 

I appeal to the intelligent men of this General 
Assembly to vote for this resolution, and to vote for 
it now, so that this commission can proceed with 
their work, hear all parties in interest, and report 
to this General Assembly at an early date. 

Let us do something in our day and generation, 
and not leave everything to posterity to ponder 
over and settle. 



74 



SPEECH 

Delivered May 21, 1895, on the Resolution cre- 
ating a Commission on the Revision of the 
Constitution. 

Mr. Speaker and Members of the House of 
Representatives : 
I INTRODUCED, early in the session, an act pro- 
viding for a commission to report to this General 
Assembly amendments to the Constitution of the 
State. I am aware that it is not a Democratic 
measure, and that my action has not been gener- 
ally approved by the Democratic party ; but as I 
am not in politics for a living, I am at liberty to 
exercise my own judgment. I am a practical man, 
living in a practical age ; and if I cannot get all I 
want, I am not, therefore, going to give up trying 
to get something. 

The amendments which I introduced to the Con- 
stitution of the State during this session, and which 
have been alluded to by the gentleman on the 
other side, are, to my thinking, very important. 
There is no politics in them. They are such 
amendments as good, sound business men and 
right thinking men of all parties can agree upon. 
75 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

The first is one providing that no more special 
charters shall be granted, but that all private cor- 
porations shall be organized under a general law. 
This is a provision in the constitutions of several 
States, and would take away from this General 
Assembly one-half of its business, shorten the ses- 
sion at least one-half, and banish this great hoard 
of lobbyists that are constantly haunting these 
legislative halls. 

The second amendment provides that no bill 
appropriating money shall be passed until it has 
been printed and on each member's desk at least 
three days before its passage. This would prevent 
the passage of a vast number of bills appropriating 
the public money to an almost unlimited extent 
on the last days of the session. 

The third provides that no member of the Gen- 
eral Assembly shall be eligible to any office which 
requires an election by either branch of the House 
during his term of office. This amendment has 
been commended by every leading newspaper of 
both political parties in the State, and would 
prevent a large amount of shameful log-rolling, 
which has been exercised in times gone by 
to elevate men into public position to which 
they would never have arrived, except by tak- 
ing advantage of their position in the General 
Assembly. 

While it is true that I introduced a bill for a 
commission, it was very differently made up from 
76 



REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION 

the one now before the House, for that commis- 
sion was composed of men none of whom, in my 
humble opinion, would ever care to go to their 
graves, and have it engraved on their tomb- 
stones, where their children and their children's 
children could see it : " Here lies a man who 
dared not do right for fear it would hurt his 
party." 

If the Joint Standing Committee on Constitu- 
tional Amendments had read their Bible more 
faithfully instead of attending so many caucuses, 
they would have made an entirely different report, 
for they would have found that page and verse in 
the Bible where it says, " And as ye would that 
men should do to you, do ye also to them, like- 
wise ; " and they would have found that page and 
verse where it says, " Therefore all things whatso- 
ever ye would that men should do to you, do ye 
even so to them; for this is the law and the 
prophets." But King Caucus has once more 
triumphed, as he has often in the past, and will 
probably oftentimes in the future, over the blessed 
teachings of the Bible. 

By what theory, or on what claim of justice or 
equity, this committee report a commission com- 
posed of eighteen Democrats and thirty Republi- 
cans is beyond my comprehension, unless it is on 
the theory that a Democrat is of no use except to 
pay taxes, and to shout as the procession goes by. 
But the composition of this commission is in har- 
77 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

mony with our present system of representation in 
this State, — the most unrepresentative, the most 
un-RepubUcan, and the most un-Democratic to be 
found anywhere in the civiUzed world. 

It takes fourteen hundred Democrats to elect 
a Representative in this House, while there is 
a Representative here for every four hundred 
Republicans in the State. In other words, every 
single Republican voter in this State has more 
political influence than any three Democrats and 
out -votes them. 

It you look at the Senate, it is still worse. It 
takes sixty-six thousand Democrats to elect one 
Senator, while there is a Senator for every four 
thousand Republicans in Connecticut. In other 
words, one Republican vote weighs as much in 
this State at the ballot-boxes as that of any fifteen 
Democrats. 

This system makes the ballot-box a fraud, and 
the elections a cheat. 

If there were a similar state of affairs in any 
State south of Mason and Dixon's line, there is not 
a Republican orator or a Republican newspaper 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but that would 
denounce it as a Democratic crime and a Demo- 
cratic shame. 

Now, I shall vote for this bill with all its incon- 
sistencies, for I believe, and it is my faith, that 
any political party that undertakes to take an 
unfair and an unjust advantage of its opponent, 
78 



REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION 

in the end will suffer thereby; otherwise, life 
would be hopeless, and the future dark. 

I believe, with the same organization, and the 
same means to work with, that this State is Demo- 
cratic, except possibly in such a land-slide as we 
had last fall ; and I read in a Republican news- 
paper (I think the "Bridgeport Standard") that 
they hoped there would never be another land- 
slide, " for never did so much political drift-wood," 
they said, " come to the surface in this State." 

Now, the composition of this commission is not 
remarkable so much for what it contains as for 
what it does not contain. I do not know, person- 
ally, many of this commission, but so far as I can 
learn — so far as my knowledge goes — there is not 
a single clergyman on this commission. These col- 
onies of Hartford and New Haven were founded 
by clergymen, and no class has done more in the 
last two hundred and fifty years to make our his- 
tory glorious. I appeal to the member from 
Guilford, Rev. Mr. Range, if I am not right. 

I do not find a single physician, and I know of 
no class in the community more intelligent, more 
liberal in their views, and better fitted to advise in 
all matters relative to the welfare and the well- 
being of society. I appeal to my good friend from 
Manchester, Dr. Whiton, if I am not right. But 
the framers of this bill will have none of you. 
They prefer politics to statesmanship, and the 
good men of all parties understand it. There are 
79 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

men on that commission who sit up nights and 
travel miles to beat the Democratic party, by fair 
means or foul, unless they are awfully misjudged. 
This commission, the way it is made up, is a trav- 
esty on justice ; it is a burlesque affair. It is a 
misnomer to call it a constitutional commission, — 
a better name would be a "Judson's Political 
Menagerie Combination." 

I do not find a single person interested in the 
great charities of the State, — institutions which have 
been born since this Constitution was framed, and 
for whose protection and maintenance certain car- 
dinal amendments ought to be made to our present 
Constitution. 

I do not find on this commission a single farmer 
— any man representing the great agricultural in- 
terests, which is one-half the wealth of the State. 
I do not find a single one of the learned professors 
of your colleges, or any one connected with the 
great educational or common-school systems of the 
State. 

I do not find on this commission a single man 
who ever soils his hands with daily work. 

I do not find any representatives of the great 
working, toiling masses of this State, — the hope 
and the pride and the salvation of Connecticut. 
Eight-tenths of the voting population of the State 
are entirely unrepresented in this commission. 

I do not find a single representative of that 
class of our citizens who are German born, who 
80 



REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION 

number a hundred thousand people, and who 
are our best and most thrifty and inteUigent 
citizens. 

I do not find in this commission a single repre- 
sentative of that great element which is trying to 
reform the pohtics, to enforce the administration 
of justice, and to elevate the moral standing of 
society. 

But what I do find is this. I find scattered all 
through that commission representatives of the 
great corporate interests of the State ; the very 
interests that might possibly be reached and re- 
formed by an amendment to the Constitution, 
and I find politics in the commission from the 
beginning to the end. 

I find some good men on this commission, but I 
shall await with amazement the result of this Con- 
stitutional Commission. 

I had hoped that this committee on Constitu- 
tional Amendments would have risen to the height 
of this great occasion, and would have given us 
a commission which would have commanded the 
support of all the broad, generous, good-thinking 
people of this State. 

I had hoped, but I have hoped in vain, that this 
committee would have reported a commission 
which we could feel assured would make a report 
that would be of great and permanent value to the 
people of this State ; and I had hoped that the 
joint standing committee of this General Assembly 
6 8i 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

would have taken for its motto those well-remem- 
bered lines of Shakespeare, — 

" Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, 
Thy God's, and truth's." 

I am disappointed, but I submit gracefully to 
the inevitable. 



82 



SPEECH 

Delivered May 29, 1895, on the Plurality 
Amendment. 

Mr, Speaker : 

I DID not think there would be any occasion for 
my addressing this House again during this session, 
and I do not now intend to make any set speech. 

There are some things which you cannot discuss ; 
there is no right or wrong to them. There is no 
right or wrong to the Lord's Prayer, to the Sermon 
on the Mount, to the multiplication table, or to a 
problem in Euclid. 

Some of us, when we were boys, stumbled and 
stuttered over the Pons Asinorum, and could 
hardly understand it ; but the problem was right 
all the same. This Plurality Amendment may be 
the Pons Asinorum to many Republicans, and they 
may stumble and stutter over the solution ; but the 
Plurality Amendment is right all the time. 

I heard a member on the other side ask another 
worthy member the other day when the Republi- 
can party was ever committed to this amendment. 
I reply, it was committed to it when it was born 
into this world ; it was committed to it by every 
83 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

victory that it has ever won, by every platform that 
it has ever promulgated, and by every statesman 
that it has ever produced,. — that the people shall 
rule. It is the doctrine of every Republican State 
in the Union ; it is the doctrine that is applied to 
the election of every other officer in the United 
States, and in this State, except to the State ticket. 

No man can doubt how Abraham Lincoln would 
vote if he were here to-day ; no one can doubt 
how Ulysses S. Grant would vote if he were here. 
These men did not hesitate to do right for fear of 
political consequences. They mapped out a cer- 
tain political course which they knew was right, 
and let the consequences take care of themselves. 
They never crooked the pregnant hinges of the 
knee, that thrift might follow fawning. 

Again, let me tell the gentleman when the Re- 
publican party was committed to this amendment. 
It was committed to it in the session of 1893. I 
was talking only a day or so ago with the Hon. 
O. R. Wood ; and never has the Republican party 
had a more able or more conscientious leader in 
this branch of the General Assembly in the last ten 
years than that gentleman. He said it would be a 
political crime for the Republican party to kill this 
amendment. He said he stood up in the Republi- 
can caucus in 1893, and spoke for this amendment 
and pledged the party to it, and there were enough 
Republicans there who notified him that if the 
Republican party did not commit itself to this 
84 



PLURALITY AMENDMENT 

Plurality Amendment, they would vote with the 
Democrats in favor of a Constitutional Convention, 
and their votes would carry it. Then you would 
have reaped a whirlwind. 

I am astonished to hear the honorable gentle- 
man from Norwich appeal to the members on his 
side of the House to vote against this amendment, 
because the Democrats are in favor of it. If it is 
death to any public measure to have Democrats 
favor it, then it is better that the Democrats retire 
absolutely from this Assembly Chamber. 

If such narrow, unreasonable statements (I will 
not dignify them with the name of arguments) are 
to influence members in their votes here, then the 
forty-six men who are so unfortunate as to have been 
sent here by their constituents, had better retire 
immediately. This is the same spirit, a little more 
modernized perhaps, but the same spirit which in- 
spired the Catholics to burn heretics at the stake 
many centuries ago ; that inspired the Puritans 
when they drove Roger Williams from the Massa- 
chusetts Colony, and that inspired the Know- 
Nothings when they burned Roman Catholic 
Asylums, — in other words, to hate and to vote 
against everything that your opponent favors, and to 
set yourself up as the paragon of political wisdom. 

There is not a member in this General Assembly, 

on either side of the House or in either branch, 

except possibly the gentleman who graces the 

Speaker's chair, who has any political future worth 

85 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

worrying about. Nine-tenths of us will never be 
here again, and nine-tenths of us never want to be 
here again, and therefore most of us can afford to 
do what is right. 

If you wish to see how happy a man can look 
when he is politically dead, look at me ; but I agree 
with the member from Guilford, and we both 
think, as Socrates taught, that if there is another 
world, and we think there is, it is better than this ; 
but if there is no other world, then we think still, 
as Socrates taught, there is nothing so blessed as 
physical or political sleep. 

We want no more crowbar Governors in this 
State. They are only an injury to the party they 
try to serve. The last one cost the State $250,000 
for nothing, and resulted in giving Connecticut 
overwhelmingly to the Democrats. 

I know that that same Governor is here to-day, 
that Machiavelli of Connecticut politics, engineer- 
ing the defeat of this amendment ; but every 
Republican member of this General Assembly will 
serve his party much better to ignore that man's 
advice, to keep clear of his schemes, and to carry 
out that verse in the Bible which, much better 
than any other verse ever written by man, inspired 
or uninspired, points out the wise course for every 
person, be he politician or not, to follow in all his 
doings ; to wit, " To do justly, love mercy, and 
walk humbly with thy God." 



86 



SPEECH 

Delivered May 22, 1895, on the Building and 
Control of the Hartford Bridge. 

Mr. Speaker and Members of the House of 
Representatives : 

I STAisTD here solitary and alone. Mr. Judson 
and myself agreed upon a report placing this 
bridge on Hartford County, but since signing the 
report he has concluded to support the bill as 
adopted by the Senate. 

It is urged that unless this bill is to pass this 
House exactly as it passed the Senate, there is 
danger that upon its return to the Senate the 
whole measure will be defeated. That argument 
has no weight with me. This matter is too serious, 
and the principles we seek to establish are too 
important, to be traded off on account of any fear 
of what the Senate will do. 

For my part I never knew what the Senate was 
here for. They have always seemed to me largely 
like the feather on a woman's hat, — more orna- 
mental than useful. Individually I have a great 
respect for them, but collectively I have no use for 
them. 

87 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

If you wish to live happily, die peacefully, and 
have some good minister say a kind word for you 
over your open grave when you cannot speak for 
yourself, in my humble opinion you should vote 
against this law proposed by the Senate, and gen- 
erally against every law proposed by the Senate. 

This bill., as it comes from the Senate, placing 
this bridge back upon the five towns, is a most 
wicked and unjust act, and any tax-payer in the 
towns of East Hartford, Glastonbury, Manchester, 
and South Windsor is almost warranted in standing 
with his gun in his hands when the tax-collector 
comes round to collect his portion of the tax for 
building these bridges over the Connecticut River 
under the provisions of this Bridge Bill. 

There is not a member of this Legislature, no 
matter from what part of the State he comes, but 
would feel the same way if he were a resident of 
these four towns. 

There is but one good name for this bill, imper- 
fectly drawn, inaptly expressed, unreasonable in 
its provisions, and cruel in its exaction, — and I 
name it " Crazy Quilt Legislation." 

This bill, as it has passed the Senate, settles 
nothing, establishes no policy, and is a model for 
no legislation in the future. The majority of the 
Committee have abandoned every argument that 
they advanced, have stamped upon nearly every 
provision of the law which they reported, and 
have accepted this wicked substitute, born and 



HARTFORD BRIDGE 

created, in my humble opinion, in the mind of 
one man, — ex-Governor Morgan G. Bulkeley ; 
and I trust he is proud of his work. 

This question will keep coming here and haunt- 
ing these legislative halls until you have settled 
it right and established a policy that shall be 
uniform and permanent throughout the entire 
State. 

The bill reported by Mr. Judson and myself is 
the only bill that will settle this matter satisfactorily 
to the State of Connecticut, and the only bill that 
will forever end this controversy. It is the only 
business plan that has ever been suggested or 
talked about. 

If you have been permitted to see the beauties 
of this open spring by a kind Providence, or to 
continue to enjoy the love and affection of your 
family and friends up to the present hour; if your 
life has been spared for any good purpose, — it is 
that you should be here and vote to take this 
bridge forever off the Treasury of the State of 
Connecticut, and to vote that the State of Connec- 
ticut shall forever go out of bridge-building. 

I will not weary this House by rehearsing the 
arguments which I advanced almost at the open- 
ing of this General Assembly, when I took occa- 
sion to speak on the resolution I had the honor 
to introduce instructing the Judiciary Committee 
to inquire and report what action if any was ne- 
cessary to protect the interests of the State of 
89 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

Connecticut in the East Hartford Bridge matter. 
What I said then, time and reflection have only 
strengthened in my mind. 

I thought then, but I know now, that I echo 
the sentiments of more than ninety-five per cent 
of all the voters of this State, of all the manufac- 
turers, of all the business and professional men, 
and of all the tax-payers, when I say that Connec- 
ticut is irrevocably opposed to the building of 
bridges over navigable streams, either here or in 
any other portion of this State. Such a wild and 
fanciful scheme means in the end only the bank- 
ruptcy of your State treasury and the creation of 
a great and powerful cabal, which, with its vast 
expenditures of money and its numerous em- 
ployees, will be forever a menace to the political 
integrity of the State. 

Now, therefore, there are but two questions 
here for you to discuss and to decide to-day. 

You are, one and all, directors in the great 
corporation of this State, and you will treat this 
matter as you would treat a similar one in any 
private corporation to which you might or may 
belong. I come to you, a plain business man, 
and I talk to you as business men. Pay no atten- 
tion to any man who attempts to make you believe 
that the affairs of this State are to be treated in 
any diff'erent manner or governed by any different 
principles than those that apply to every-day busi- 
ness life. The same moral and legal principles 
90 



HARTFORD BRIDGE 

that govern you in the management of your pri- 
vate affairs, of the railroads, of the manufactories, 
of the banks, and of the insurance companies in 
which you are interested, may safely guide and 
govern your conduct in transacting the public 
business of the State. 

Now, the two questions to be settled are 
these : — 

First — Who ought to build, manage, and con- 
trol the three East Hartford bridges and the 
causeways connecting therewith, for all time? 

Second — What disposition, if any, is to be 
made towards settling the contract with the Berlin 
Iron Bridge Company? 

As to who should build, maintain, and control 
these bridges, I cannot consider any longer an 
open question in Connecticut. The Legislature 
of this State has imposed the bridges over the 
Housatonic River on the counties of New Haven 
and Fairfield ; and those counties have cheer- 
fully acquiesced, and have already spent nearly 
$200,000 in rebuilding and maintaining such 
bridges, and there are others which they must build 
in the near future. 

I appeal with confidence to the member from 
North Branford, and the member from Guilford, 
and the member from the hills of Prospect, and to 
all the members of New Haven and Fairfield 
counties, — many of them residing far remote 
from the bridges already constructed over the 
91 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

Housatonic River, and who have cheerfully been 
paying for bridges they rarely, if ever, use, — to 
say whether the policy that is correct in your 
counties does not apply with equal force to all the 
other counties of the State, including the great 
County of Hartford? Is it not almost poetic 
justice for you to-day to vote to apply to the 
County of Hartford the same principles and laws 
which they were so ready to impose upon your 
own counties? 

But they say that you must not apply to the 
Connecticut River the same laws and rules which 
you apply to all the other navigable streams of this 
State, — an argument which, in my humble opin- 
ion, is worthy of the genius of a modern Dombey. 
That this sacred stream, this modern Ganges, is 
an exception to all the other rivers of this State 
is the merest bosh ; and the men or the clientage 
who undertake to build an argument upon such a 
flimsy and unsubstantial basis might just as well 
try to climb the fleeting mountains of the fleecy 
skies. They have not been able to produce a 
single instance in the legislation of the past one 
hundred years throughout the entire sisterhood of 
States, where any State has ever attempted or 
undertaken the building of a bridge over a navi- 
gable stream. The proposition is so monstrous 
and absurd that good men throughout the entire 
confines of the Republic have frowned upon it and 
strangled it even before its birth. If you go home 
92 



HARTFORD BRIDGE 

to-night with my friend Mr. Middleton of En- 
field, in one step you cross into Hampden County, 
through which this same strange river runs, and you 
will learn how the intelHgent business men of 
Springfield and the honest yeomanry of Hampden 
County have bridged this river. These are the 
facts : — 

The north-end bridge at Springfield cost . $170,904 

Springfield paid $145,124 

West Springfield paid .... 25,780 

$170,904 

The south-end bridge at Springfield cost . $ii6,i8S 
Hampden County paid . . . .$11,000 

Springfield paid 75>522 

Agawam paid 29,666 

$ii6,iS8 

The old wooden bridge cost $30,000 

Hampden County paid .... $15,000 

West Springfield paid 4,000 

Springfield paid 10,000 

Agawam paid 1,000 • 

$30,000 

You will see how differently from the city of 
Hartford the city of Springfield has treated the 
matter of this bridge which pours into its lap the 
traffic of nearly one-half this rich and populous 
County of Hartford. The city of Springfield alone 
has paid, as you will notice, towards the construc- 
tion of these bridges nearly one-quarter of a million 
of dollars. 

93 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

It is practically impossible for most adjacent 
towns to build bridges over navigable streams, and 
there is no better division of territory than county 
lines. They have all the organization and all the 
means to build and manage these bridges without 
creating any new bureaus, commissions, or ofifices ; 
and the argument that many of the towns reap no 
immediate benefit from this bridge, or similar 
bridges, would apply equally well to every court- 
house, to every jail, and to every County Home 
that has ever been, or will ever be, erected in this 
State. Some towns must necessarily reap more 
benefit than others. 

The Connecticut River has made Hartford City 
and Hartford County rich. It has for two hun- 
dred years or more carried the produce of its 
farms and the products of its factories to their 
markets, and brought back in exchange the barter 
of the world. Move this river over into Tolland 
County and we will build this bridge for you for 
nothing. 

This whole matter has been botched from the 
start. For ten years the stock of this Bridge Com- 
pany sold here in Hartford for $i6o a. share. The 
day after the award, it was worth $320 a share, 
and fortunes were made out of it. This great 
franchise of running cars from Hartford to East 
Hartford, lasting perhaps for one hundred or five 
hundred years, has been frittered away for a song. 
I have no doubt that the New York and New 
94 



HARTFORD BRIDGE 

England Railroad would cheerfully give $100,000 
to keep horse and electric cars off this bridge ; 
and I have no doubt, besides, that parties can be 
found to build this bridge free of all expense for 
the right to run cars for ninety-nine years over it. 
No man can calculate the value of this franchise, 
which includes the right to carry passengers, bag- 
gage, mails, and freight. 

Look back one hundred years at Manchester, 
Rockville, and East Hartford, and look forward 
one hundred years when all this portion of Con- 
necticut will be alive and teeming with prosperous 
cities and a vast aggregate of manufacturing and 
industrial shops. Then see how far the honor of 
the State of Connecticut is concerned in this con- 
tract with the Berlin Iron Bridge Company. 

The main and the only real reason advanced by 
the friends of the law of 1893 (if it has any friends) 

— namely, the plighted faith and honor of the State 

— is, in my opinion, utterly without foundation. 
With every leading newspaper in Connecticut, out- 
side the city of Hartford, calling for the repeal of 
this law, supported by an overwhelming and almost 
unanimous sentiment of the entire State, either the 
moral sentiment of Connecticut has become hope- 
lessly daft and benumbed, or there is no moral 
turpitude or sacrifice of public honor in the repeal 
of this law. In fact, the passage of this unfortunate 
law in the way it was accomplished would call for 
its repeal, even without the convincing and satis- 

95 



RATCLTFFE HICKS 

factory reasons already advanced. If there was 
ever a law conceived in sin and born in iniquitj^, 
this is one. When any man, or set of men, 
have it in their power to say that for so much 
money they will secure the passage of any law in 
this State, — and, above all, one so momentous in 
its consequences, — then it is time to cry a halt, 
and to teach these men and their poor deluded 
victims that that is no way to secure honest legis- 
lation in this State, and that " The mills of God 
grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small." 

The honor of the State has been twice imper- 
illed, — first by the passage of the law in 1S93, 
and second, when the contract was let to the 
Berlin Iron Bridge Company at a price $75,000 
above honest competition ; and the friends of this 
bridge, it it has any, ought to hide their faces in 
shame instead of coming here and talking about 
the honor of the State. A distinguished member 
of the Hartford County Bar came before the Legis- 
lative Committee and talked about the virgin honor 
of the State of Connecticut. But suppose you put 
it another way. A woman has been ruined, and 
her honor trampled in the dust. Is she still to 
cling to her paramour in crime, or is she to assert 
her womanhood and denounce the villain to all the 
world, and say, " From this day onward I am a 
woman : there is the man who ruined me ! " 
There is where Connecticut stands to-day. 

It passes my comprehension how any praying 
96 



HARTFORD BRIDGE 

man or woman in Hartford can ever cross this 
bridge without a shudder; how any Christian 
minister can stand up in his pulpit in this great 
city of Hartford, and look his congregation in the 
face without a heavy heart, when, despite all his 
teachings, they have given their approval to prac- 
tices which, if continued, mean only death and 
disgrace to American institutions. How little did 
Thomas Hooker think, as he threaded his path 
across the New England wilderness, fighting his 
way against wild beasts and wilder men, to found 
here this Hartford Colony, that the day would ever 
come when his descendants would try to take 
advantage of the State of Connecticut, and all its 
good people, by means so unhallowed as those 
employed in securing the passage of the Senate 
bill. 

But, furthermore, my bill provides for every safe- 
guard that any business man can require ; and the 
legal rights of this Bridge Company, if they have 
any, are safe beyond peradventure. So do not let 
that question worry you for a moment. As to the 
amount you shall pay to the county of Hartford, 
^100,000 is better than $300,000 and a lot of 
costly litigation; or the methods you will adopt 
for terminating this contract with the Berlin Iron 
Bridge Company are matters of non-essential, in 
my mind, so long as the State gets rid of the bridge. 

The difference between the bill passed by the 
Senate and the bill I advocate is that in the Senate 
7 97 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

bill it is provided that if the court hold the contract 
valid, then the State is to go on and build the 
bridge. My bill provides that if the contract is 
valid, as we have given them notice that we do not 
want the bridge, we simply pay what damages the 
Berlin Bridge Company can show. 

The present able and distinguished Republican 
comptroller of this State, by and with the advice of 
a leading member of the Hartford Bar, has already 
repudiated this contract ; has boldly taken the 
position that this contract with the Berlin Iron 
Bridge Company is utterly void and worthless, is a 
fraud on the State, and has refused to honor the 
drafts of these Bridge Commissioners until your 
Supreme Court shall have commanded him to the 
contrary. He knows full well the responsibility of 
his position, and is not afraid to await the action 
of the next Republican State Convention, or of the 
voters at the ballot-box, on the charge of having 
compromised the honor of the State. Is there any 
Republican member of this General Assembly less 
honorable and less brave than Comptroller Meade ? 
If these newspapers and lawyers working in the 
interests of the Berlin Iron Bridge Company have 
any confidence in the sanctity and validity of this 
contract, why do they not fire their harmless paper 
missiles at Comptroller Meade and the judges of 
the State, instead of flooding our desks with their 
worthless paper pellets ; or, better still, go on and 
try their case in the court ? 
98 



HARTFORD BRIDGE 

Now, gentlemen, I have nearly finished. When 
we leave here on the final adjournment of this 
General Assembly, most of us will never meet 
again ; but as you go on your daily rounds, I beg 
of you to remember that the member from Tolland 
joined hands with you ; that the little County of 
Tolland reached across the State and clasped 
hands with the brave and good men of Litchfield 
County and Fairfield County and New Haven 
County, and all the counties of the State, in estab- 
lishing a policy that shall live and bear good fruits 
in this State long after all of us shall have been 
called to our final accounts. 

It has been said, " To have one's name written 
on the pages of Gibbon is equal to having it 
painted in letters of gold on the dome of St. 
Peter's at Rome." None of us can ever have our 
names printed on the pages of the immortal 
Gibbon ; but we can have something much better, 
— we can have the pleasure, while living, of seeing 
our names recorded on the rolls of this General 
Assembly in favor of resolutions that shall wipe 
from public gaze the last vestige of an act that 
smells to heaven; and the approval of our own 
consciences and of our constituents shall be our 
full reward. 



99 iLofC. 



SPEECH 

Delivered on Resolution concerning Debenture 
Certificates of the New York, New Haven, 
and Hartford Railroad Co?}ifany. 

Mr. Speaker: 

We are at the dividing of the ways. Every 
member of this General Assembly must now stand 
up and be counted. 

This is to me the most unpleasant duty that I 
have been called upon to perform during this 
entire session of the General Assembly. The 
officers and attorneys of the Consolidated Railroad 
Company are my intimate friends, and I would in 
any other matter comply with their wishes ; but in 
this matter I differ with them so seriously, both on 
legal and business principles, that I should be false 
to myself if I did not oppose this resolution. 

I have been told by officers of the railroad that 
I ought to vote for this resolution on account of 
my own interest in it; but that ought to be one 
reason why I should vote against it. Again, I 
would not vote for any resolution in this General 
Assembly which did not accord with my own 
judgment and conscience, — not even to please 

lOO 



DEBENTURE CERTIFICATES 

the Almighty, much less the officers of this 
Consolidated Railroad Company, 

My objections to this resolution are as follows : — 
I. I object to it on legal grounds. I think it is 
in clear contravention of the Tenth Section of the 
Constitution of the United States, " that no State 
shall pass any law impairing the validity of con- 
tracts." I think that the contract made by the 
officers and directors of the Consolidated Railroad 
with their own stockholders forbids the passage 
of this law. These debenture bonds were issued 
clearly on the understanding and agreement that 
they were to bear four per cent interest until 1903, 
and that at that time they should be exchangeable 
for stock. It was " nominated," as Shylock said, in 
the debenture bonds, as follows : " The holder of 
these certificates will be entitled to exchange the 
same on the first day of April, 1903, or within sixty 
days thereafter, and no longer, for shares of the 
capital stock of the company at par ; if not 
then surrendered for exchange they will become 
due and payable in cash on the first day of April, 
1908." 

Now, to pass any act which affects the values or 
alters the character of those debenture bonds is, to 
my thinking, a fraud on the stockholders and con- 
trary to the entire agreement. The stockholders 
took those debentures on the fair understanding 
that they were to bear only four per cent interest 
and be exchangeable for stock in 1903, and were 

lOI 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

mighty glad to get them ; and people who have 
bought them since have bought them on that same 
understanding. Many millions of dollars of these 
debentures have been sold by stockholders. Many 
people have been obliged to sell them, and 
they were bought by investors or speculators 
with the above understanding. If these deben- 
tures were to be changed in character, it is fair to 
presume that the stockholders would not have sold 
them, or if they had been bought by investors or 
speculators they would have brought a much larger 
value. They ask us to authorize them to do what 
they admit they have not the right to do without 
violating the agreement they made December lo, 
1892, with their own stockholders. 

Now, to pass a law adding new values to these 
debenture bonds and giving them new privileges 
not embraced in the original contract, and at the 
same time sacrificing the inchoate rights of the 
stockholders in all increase of the capital before 
1903, is clearly a violation of the Constitution of 
the United States ; and, in my humble opinion, 
this act is not worth the paper it is printed 
upon. 

A stockholder who has assigned his debentures 
has still an equitable interest in that contract that 
it shall not be so amended as to reduce the 
amount of stock coming to him on any increase 
of capital prior to 1903, and a court of equity will 
protect him ; and if he has not assigned his 



DEBENTURE CERTIFICATES 

debentures, then no one can deny his right to 
have the contract of December lo, 1892, carried 
out to the letter. 

Let me read you just a Uttle from the " Spring- 
field Republican " : — 

"The debenture bondholders of the New Haven 
Railroad Company have now gotten the ear of the 
Connecticut Legislature, and the passage by the 
Senate of a bill, to which Henry L. Goodwin calls 
attention in another column, is the result. 

" These bondholders bought their paper on the 
express condition that their right to subscribe to the 
stock of the company at par would not arise until 
1903. It is proposed to give them the right now; and 
as a consequence it is said that the bonds are quoted 
$2 higher and the stock correspondingly lower. Of 
course a body so far at the beck and call of special 
interests as the Connecticut Legislature seems to 
be could not be expected to look favorably on a bill 
requiring tfuture issues of stock of the New Haven 
Company to be sold at auction." 

There is not a man who owns one share of the 
stock of this railroad but can apply either to the 
State or the United States courts for an injunction, 
and so test the validity of this ill-conceived law ; 
and there can be but one result to that contest. 
Mr. H. L. Goodwin, with his little ten shares, is as 
powerful in our courts as Morgan G. Bulkeley with 
his millions. Ah, I think he is stronger, for the 
despised Nazarene of East Hartford has only for 
his guide the Constitution and the laws of the 
103 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

land, the welfare of the State, and his own clear 
conscience. 

2. My next legal objection to this resolution is 
that it does not provide for its acceptance by the 
stockholders of the company. In every other 
resolution we have passed during this session 
amending the charter of any private corporation, 
it has always been conditioned that it should be 
accepted by the stockholders. In this resolution 
such a condition does not seem even to have been 
petitioned for, or asked for by the directors of the 
railroad ; but certainly the stockholders ought to 
be consulted before this act goes into effect. 

I am not ready to-day to discuss the legality 
of the act on that feature, — although it ought to 
be law, and it certainly is justice, that no Legisla- 
ture can pass an act amending the charter of a 
private corporation without the consent of the cor- 
poration. Every member of this General Assembly 
who has any investments in corporations, either in 
this State or others, can see how dangerous a pre- 
cedent this establishes. That some man or men 
can come to the General Assembly and secure the 
passage of an amendment that shall change the 
whole character and purpose of the corporation 
without even submitting it to the approval of the 
stockholders, is a most monstrous proposition. 
Some of you own stock in companies chartered in 
other States, and you would very much regret to 
have such a rule applied to your own investments. 
104 



DEBENTURE CERTIFICATES 

3. I must object to this resolution now on 
business principles. The title of this bill is a mis- 
nomer, and it should read that this is an act to 
put unearned money to the amount of five million 
dollars in the pockets of a few men by a skilfully 
drawn private act ; and most of these men are 
now living without the confines of the State, and 
rolling in fabulous wealth. 

4. I think I can say truly that I represent the 
sentiment and opinions of nine- tenths of the seri- 
ous business men of Connecticut, when I say that 
I am opposed to any further increase in the capital 
stock of this company. The present stockholders 
are very well satisfied with receiving eight per 
cent dividends and no taxes, and they are opposed 
to the filtering out of this stock until it becomes a 
six per cent investment and sells for about par. 
A small capital and a large surplus is the wisest 
management ; and I appeal to the member from 
Norwalk and the member from Wallingford, good 
banking-men as they are, if I am not correct. 

In discussing this matter the other day with an 
officer of the company, he informed me that there 
was only one director in the company who agreed 
with my ideas ; but when he told me the name 
of that man I was proud to be in harmony with 
his business ideas, for he is probably the largest 
stockholder in the company. He is a Hartford- 
born man. He is the most far-seeing financier liv- 
ing in America to-day, and his name is familiar to 
105 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

every financier in the civilized world, — J, Pierpont 
Morgan. No man and no corporation thus far have 
ever made any mistake by following his advice on 
financial matters. He is opposed to any more 
increase in stock. He is opposed to cutting any 
more melons ; and he is in favor of bonding this road 
for these improvements at a low rate of interest, 
and creating a sinking fund for paying them off. 
And he is right. I venture to say that the Pratt 
and Whitney Co., the Meriden Britannia Co., 
Wheeler and Wilson Manufacturing Co., and the 
Willimantic Linen Co., would be very glad if they 
had less capital and more surplus. 

In common with some stockholders of this road, 
I do not think it is good policy to talk about cut- 
ting any more melons or giving away any more 
stock when all the towns along the line of this 
road from Greenwich to Mystic, and along the 
Housatonic and Naugatuck roads, the Air-Line, 
and the main branch to Enfield, are being asked 
almost to pauperize themselves to help pay for 
abolishing its grade crossings. 

Of course the great danger in having an enor- 
mous capital is that in twenty-five years a Gould 
or a Sage may own this road, and it will become 
the plaything of Wall Street, and be wrecked and 
robbed, as more than nine-tenths of the railroads 
of this country have been, either first or last ; and 
the poor savings-bank depositors in Connecticut, 
and the small Connecticut owners who thought 
1 06 



DEBENTURE CERTIFICATES 

they had a good investment, may live to see how 
it was wrecked and lost in the maelstrom of specu- 
lation and manipulation. 

5. I am in favor of a law which shall provide 
that all future increase of the capital stock of this 
railroad shall be sold — the same as is provided 
by the law of Massachusetts — by public auction. 
This is the only fair way, and the only way to 
protect the interests of the small holders — men, 
women, and children — who have not the means 
of buying more stock ; and it will surely prevent 
all surreptitious or underhanded ways of disposing 
of its capital stock. 

Now, friends, you have no right to vote away 
the interests of the citizens of this State. You are 
their servants, not their masters ; and this House, 
so far this session, has shown — thank Heaven ! — 
that no man and no set of men can influence your 
votes as against the true interests of this State and 
especially as against the weak and powerless. 

I admire the wonderful executive and construc- 
tive ability of Charles P. Clark. He has never 
had his equal on that railroad, and proud may he 
be of his work. But he will leave his work half 
done if he does not give to the travelling public 
and to the manufacturers of this State some share 
in the wonderful progress and wealth of this rail- 
road, — in my opinion the grandest railroad fran- 
chise in these United States. No man can figure 
its future values. 

107 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

It is time to call a halt, and instead of keeping 
on giving to these millionaire stockholders these 
grand largesses, to reduce its fares and its freight 
charges ; to insure, as is done in England, the 
limbs and lives of its employees, who daily risk 
them for a bare pittance, so that their families 
may have some little money in the event of 
accident or death. 

Am I not right? I appeal to the business men 
of Connecticut. Yes, I know I am right, even if 
I must stand here alone ; but I believe that you 
are with me. 

It may be that in opposing this resolution I 
have signed my political death-warrant. But polit- 
ical death has no terrors for me. It has not much 
for any Democrat in these days. One day spent 
in climbing the Alps or on the banks of the Nile 
would afford me more real satisfaction than whole 
months spent here in this Capitol contending in 
what seems to me at times the almost hopeless and 
thankless cause of the people. 

Perhaps I ought to stop here, but I wish to do 
justly by every one. The Consolidated Railroad 
Company have placed in my hand a brief, giving 
the reasons why they think I ought to vote for 
this resolution. I have read it over carefully. I 
am prepared to submit it to the examination of 
every member of this General Assembly. It states 
some historical facts that have no particular bear- 
ing on this question, and the only argument or 
~ io8 



DEBENTURE CERTIFICATES 

reason advanced in that brief is embraced in one 
paragraph, which I will read : — 

" If the company were to ofEer a new issue of stock 
to its full stockholders only, it would interfere with the 
moral rights of the certificate holders, inasmuch as the 
stock which they would be entitled to in 1903 would 
not be so large a share of property as it was at the 
time of subscribing for these certificates." 

Now, Mr. Speaker, I beg of you that you will 
not smile when I speak of this argument. It 
would seem that the Consolidated Railroad Com- 
pany were worrying day and night about the moral 
rights of the holders of these debenture bonds; 
and after having looked this broad country over 
they finally settled in their minds on the yEtna 
Life Insurance Company and Morgan G, Bulkeley 
as the proper parties to come to this Legislature 
and present the moral claims of the debenture 
holders of the road. Now, please do not laugh. 

I am very fond of the Speaker of this House ; 
and whenever I look at him I am always reminded 
of one of the funniest political episodes that have 
happened in this State in many a day, — the Bul- 
keley banquet. If we are correctly informed, the 
Speaker at that time promised to desert family, 
children, friends, and all the pleasures and attrac- 
tions of this world, to go on a pilgrimage of one 
hundred and forty years with Morgan G. Bul- 
keley. I often think of the Speaker as he goes 
109 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

on that tramp, tired, fatigued, and footsore, and 
occasionally sitting down by the roadside to rest 
himself. Then, I imagine he says to Bulkeley : 
" Morgan, tell me once more, how did it happen 
that you came to the Legislature of 1895 to pro- 
tect the moral rights of the debenture holders of 
the Consolidated Road?" The Speaker, after 
listening to the story, pats Bulkeley on the shoulder 
and says : " Morgan, this story grows richer and 
racier every time you tell it. Now I feel rested, 
and am ready to resume the tramp : but you must 
promise me that if we come across Charlie Clark 
of the ' Courant,' or John Porter of the * Post,' 
or Senator Piatt, you will tell them this story, for 
they will appreciate it as much as I do." 

Now, I want to tell you, gentlemen, a little true 
story about the origin of this bill ; and you will 
remember my story long after you have forgotten 
my good friend from Milford, with his carroty hair 
and speckled face, and long after you have forgot- 
ten the magnificent mien of the member from 
Stratford, with a head full of political tricks. You 
will often tell this story to your wives and children, 
and every time you tell it you will enjoy it the 
more. 

One cold, bleak, dreary day last January, Mor- 
gan G. Bulkeley left the ^tna Life Insurance 
Company's building, buttoning up his coat, witJi 
this little bill in his pocket, to protect the moral 
rights of the debenture holders of the Con- 
no 



DEBENTURE CERTIFICATES 

solidated Railroad, and started for the Capitol. 
On his way up Capitol Hill he met Joseph L. 
Barbour, — you all know him, and many of us love 
him, although we do not like his politics. He 
said to Bulkeley, " What are you going up to the 
Capitol for, to-day, Morgan?" Bulkeley shook 
his head and said, " I am going up to the Capitol 
to vindicate the moral rights of the debenture 
holders of the Consolidated Railroad." Joe burst 
out in one grand laugh, — that infectious laugh so 
many of us have enjoyed, — and, with tears rolling 
down his cheeks, he finally got his breath, and 
looking Morgan in the face, he said, " Oh, Morg., 
come off there ! " 

Now, gentlemen, to be serious, there is but one 
thing to do with this bill, be you friend or foe of 
the Consolidated Railroad, and that is to vote that 
it should be indefinitely postponed. In voting 
indefinitely to postpone this bill, in my humble 
opinion, you are voting for your conscience and 
your country, and I believe in the end for the best 
interests of the railroad. 



EXTRACTS OF SPEECH 

On the Connecticut River Navigation. 

Mr. Speaker and Members of the House of 
Representatives : 

I HAVE refrained from saying much during this 
session of the Legislature, and it is with hesitation 
that I rise to-day to trespass upon the time and 
attention of the House ; but I should be false to 
the people whose feeble representative I am, if I 
did not rise in my place in this House and offer 
my humble but solemn protest against the adoption 
of this monstrous outrage upon their rights and in- 
terests. Fortunately or unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, 
they have certain dear rights and interests as well 
as this railroad company, whose visionary project 
has been many times sunk into the grave, and as 
many times its skeleton dragged out by ambitious 
speculators in the people's franchises. 

Two hundred and odd years ago, where now 
stands the city of Hartford, was a wild and track- 
less wilderness. Two hundred and thirty years 
ago the Connecticut River valley was inhabited by 
the wild and untutored Indian. Two hundred 
and thirty years have rolled away, and where there 

112 



CONNECTICUT RIVER NAVIGATION 

was only a wilderness now stands the fair and 
queenly city of Hartford, one of the proudest 
jewels in this Commonwealth of ours. Two hun- 
dred and thirty years have rolled away, and the 
Connecticut River valley, then inhabited by the 
savage Indian only, has become the home of a 
hundred and fifty thousand souls, and blossoms 
with all the products of a commercial, a manufac- 
turing, and an agricultural life. What, I ask, Mr. 
Speaker, has made this wonderful change, except 
it be the free navigation of the Connecticut River ? 
What led your ancestors — what led Hooker and 
his comrades — to settle along the Connecticut 
River valley, except it was the belief that this river 
would forever afford an easy and cheap commu- 
nication through which they might send out the 
products of their industry to the four quarters of the 
globe, and receive back in return the commerce 
of mankind ? 

The petitioners ask leave of this Legislature 
to construct a railroad from Willimantic to New 
Haven, with the right to bridge the Connecticut 
River at Middletown, a point thirty miles from the 
mouth of the river and twenty miles from the head 
of navigation, — thereby blocking up and destroy- 
ing this great source of the wealth and prosperity 
of the interior and northern sections of the State. 
Although in my judgment, Mr. Speaker and gen- 
tlemen, it has not been shown by the petitioners 
that the wants, the business, or the convenience of 
8 113 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

the people along the line of the proposed road 
warrants this Legislature in granting the prayer of 
the petitioners, there is no opposition to chartering 
their road if they will abandon their drawbridge 
scheme and build their bridge just below the city 
of Middletown, where Nature, by narrowing the 
river and making huge rocky shoulders of its banks, 
has provided seemingly for this very enterprise. 
There build your road, gentlemen, and we wish 
you success. Only leave open this great artery of 
communication which connects us with the whole 
world ; leave free to all comers this great natural 
thoroughfare, whose capacities for transporting 
freight excel those of all the railroads in the State, 
and which now enable us to defy all possible rail- 
road monopolies. 

Now, if the wants and necessities of the people 
along this proposed road authorize the Legislature 
in chartering the Air- Line road, then they warrant 
us in chartering it by the route of the Straits alone. 
The interests of the people one mile east or west 
of the river will be as completely subserved, and 
the country to be traversed by this road as fully 
benefited, by the suspension bridge as by the draw- 
bridge route — the city of Middletown and the town 
of Portland alone suffering any inconveniences from 
the bridge across the Straits. Now, I ask, gentle- 
men, if the prosperity of every town for miles to 
the right and left of the river above Middletown, 
if the vast interests of the city of Hartford and the 
114 



CONNECTICUT RIVER NAVIGATION 

thriving towns around, are to be jeopardized and 
sacrificed because Middletown is to be less accom- 
modated by a suspension bridge than by a draw- 
bridge ? It is said that the road cannot be built by 
the suspension route, by reason of the additional 
expenditure of money requisite to build the bridge. 
Then, gentlemen, there is not business or necessity 
enough to warrant this Legislature in chartering 
their road at all. But I apprehend that the suspen- 
sion bridge is not a fatal obstacle to the building of 
the Air- Line road. One of the principal witnesses 
before the committee, Mr. Hubbard, a petitioner 
and resident of Middletown, admitted frankly that 
they wanted a railroad, with a drawbridge, if pos- 
sible, — if not, with a suspension bridge. Grant the 
petition of the Air- Line road, let that drawbridge be 
built, and it will be the stepping-stone to the erec- 
tion of other bridges. Pressing closely upon the 
heels of this Air- Line petition comes the petition 
of the Shore Line for a bridge at the mouth of the 
river; and no legislator can with much consis- 
tency vote for the bridge at Middletown, and not 
for one at the mouth of the river ; and by building 
these bridges you drive every timber of shipping 
from the Connecticut River, the noblest river in 
New England. 

The friends of the bridge, in their enthusiastic 

moments, claim that the draw can be so managed 

as not to interfere with the navigation of the river. 

If one draw can be so managed, so can a hundred ; 

ii.S 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

and you might roof the river over with bridges 
without affecting its navigation ! Now, is any man 
so big a fool as to believe it? Do they beUeve it 
themselves, when they say that this bridge will 
make Middletown and Portland the head of river 
navigation? Prominent among the petitioners are 
men from the city of Middletown, who in the last 
session of the Legislature strongly opposed the 
erection of a bridge at the mouth of the river, 
because of its disastrous consequences to the navi- 
gation of the river. Mark you, gentlemen, the 
bridge was to be located below Middletown then, 
above it now. Can any sane man say in the face 
of the irresistible and overwhelming proof on this 
subject before the committee, that a drawbridge 
is not fatal to the navigation of the river? If 
drawbridges are not ruinous to navigation, why 
does the Steamboat Company, year after year, 
when this project of bridging the river is brought 
before the Legislature, make such herculean efforts 
in opposition to it? Why do the owners of every 
vessel upon the river that will have to pass through 
this draw, and why does this city of Hartford, make 
similar exertions ? Why do petitions from towns 
throughout the interior and northern sections of the 
State come deluging this Legislature remonstrating 
against the bridging of the river? Is it because 
they are hostile to the Air- Line road ? Not so. 

Nearly all the witnesses before the Committee 
introduced by the petitioners have themselves ad- 
ii6 



CONNECTICUT RIVER NAVIGATION 

mitted that the draw will be an impediment to the 
navigation of the river. Some of them admit that 
it might be a serious obstacle. On the other hand, 
a large number of captains and masters of sailing- 
vessels, men who have learned from a life-long 
experience something of the difficulties and em- 
barrassments incident to river navigation ; men 
who are behind no other class of men in the 
improvements of the age, and whom practical 
legislators will prefer to listen to on this subject 
rather than to railroad managers or lobbyists or 
manufacturers who know nothing of navigation, — 
these men have come here and sworn that this 
draw will be a serious if not a fatal obstacle to the 
navigation of the river. Many thousand passages 
are to be made through this draw every year, 
some of them in the night season, some of them in 
storms and floods. The vessel must feel its way 
along, oftentimes lie by until morning, or until the 
storm has abated and the floods have ceased, and 
then a sailing-vessel must beat its way up and 
down through this draw. Why all this delay, this 
extra hazard, this expense? Because, gentlemen, 
at the city of Middletown the station will be 
located a mile nearer the centre of the town by 
the drawbridge route than it would be by the 
route of the suspension bridge ! The friends of the 
drawbridge try to excuse this monstrous scheme 
by showing that there are already obstructions to 
navigation in the river, — that there are narrow 
117 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

channels, short curves, and bends ; and still they 
have the hardihood and audacity to come here and 
ask this General Assembly to add another and far 
more formidable barrier to the river navigation ! 

The petitioners come here and ask this Legisla- 
ture for the privilege of bridging the Connecticut 
River, which from time immemorial has never been 
bridged below the head of navigation ; to sacrifice 
the interests of one section of this State to benefit 
the interests of another and far lesser section. On 
the other hand, the opponents of this draw do not 
come here to oppose the building of this road, or 
to ask this Legislature to enact any law to bene- 
fit them to the detriment of any other section of 
this State. They simply ask that those rights 
which they and their fathers before them for more 
than two hundred years have enjoyed shall not be 
taken from them. 

The navigation of this river has regulated and 
cheapened the price of freight for miles in every 
direction from it. Add another and an almost 
impassable obstruction to its navigation, — increase 
the price of freights, if you please, — and you have 
put another lever in the hands of the railroad 
interests, and dealt a serious blow to the manufac- 
turing, the trading, and the agricultural interests of 
the State. You may think it a very pleasant thing 
to vote away the prosperity and the privileges of 
this section of the State ; but some day or other 
there will appear some other great grasping cor- 
ii8 



CONNECTICUT RIVER NAVIGATION 

poration that will seek to suck the life-blood out of 
your section of the State. The Shore- Line road, 
now joining hands with the Air-Line road in this 
attempt to build a draw at Middletown, may receive 
the aid of the Air- Line in return, and by like bar- 
gaining secure the co-operation of other roads, and 
ask of this Legislature permission to bridge the 
Thames. 

If this General Assembly shall decide in favor of 
bridging the Connecticut River at Middletown, 
and that bridge shall ever be built, and then it 
shall be shown by unfortunate experience to be a 
mighty impediment to the navigation of the river, 
and shall drive from it every vestige of its once glo- 
rious commerce, there will be no remedy. It will 
have to stand there, a monument of the folly and 
wickedness of the General Assembly of 1867. 

It is for you to say, gentlemen, whether that 
bridge shall be built or not. From your decision 
the people whose rights and interests are at stake 
have no appeal. If you shall have sacrificed them, 
gentlemen, then they can only pray Almighty God 
to send a raging, roaring flood, which shall carry 
off in its seething bosom every relic of the Golgotha 
erected by the General Assembly of Connecticut 
to mark the limit of the free navigation of the 
Connecticut River. 



119 



AGE OF CONSENT 

Mr. Speaker : 

I HESITATE to Say anything in this matter. This 
is a question which a woman hke Mrs. Isabella 
Hooker — daughter of a New England clergyman 
of world-wide fame, sister of one of America's 
most illustrious sons, and wife of one of Hartford's 
first citizens — can talk to you about better than 
any member of this General Assembly. But she is 
not here, and no woman is here to voice the senti- 
ments of her sex. So I will briefly explain why I 
am in favor of raising the age of consent to 
eighteen years. 

If you will take the pains to ask any clergyman, 
Protestant or Catholic, or any physician, — those 
men who go down where sorrow and sadness and 
sickness dwell, — he will tell you that in ninety- 
nine cases out of a hundred, where the first wrong 
has been committed, the woman is the innocent 
party. 

I know no sight more sad, no fate more heart- 
rending, than to see a young man or a young 
woman who has sacrificed and thrown away all 
prospects of an honorable future life. A prominent 



AGE OF CONSENT 

clergyman of this' city remarked to me only a day 
or so ago that he hardly ever knew an instance 
where the persons were of nearly equal age but 
that the man was willing to redress the wrong by 
marrying the woman, and thereby saving her honor 
and her self-respect. 

I was talking on this subject only a day or so ago 
with the editor of the " Hartford Times," who has 
crowned eighty years of a useful and honorable life 
largely devoted to the discussion of matters of 
public interest ; and he remarked that a woman of 
fourteen hardly knew her own mind ; that eighteen 
was better as the age of consent, and that it ought 
in his opinion to be twenty-one years. It is pretty 
safe in Connecticut, be you Republican or Demo- 
crat, to listen to the advice on matters relating to 
the improvement and elevation of society of that 
noble citizen and good man, Hon, Alfred E. Burr. 

Since making our report, the Legislature of 
Massachusetts has passed a bill making eighteen 
years the age of consent. That age now is the 
prevailing one in most of the progressive and en- 
lightened States of the Union. I hope Connec- 
ticut will not be behind her sister States. 

We have been here four long months, passing 
laws for the benefit of the men of Connecticut ; 
but not one Act have we passed for the benefit 
of the woman of this State. I beg of you to pass 
this bill in the interests of innocent womanhood, 
and I promise you that you shall never regret your 
action. 121 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

Minority Report from 'judiciary Committee on 
House Bill No. 315. 

The minority of the Committee on the Judici- 
ary submit the following reasons for their report in 
favor of making the age of consent eighteen years : 

1. The main object of all legislation should be 
the protection of the young, the innocent, and the 
weak. No average woman under the age of eigh- 
teen years has either the knowledge or the power 
of will that puts her on an equality with her 
seducer, be he man or boy. But the boy will 
marry her, and thereby save her honor ; while the 
man will cast her off, regardless of her fate, and 
of all the terrible consequences that await her 
imprudence. 

2. All legislation should be consistent; and 
while it is a criminal offence for a clergyman to 
marry a woman under the age of twenty-one years 
without the consent of her parents, and while it is 
impossible for any woman to deed her property or 
to transact any lawful business under the age of 
twenty-one years, how much less competent is she 
to act in matters that involve her peace and happi- 
ness for life, and, if she makes a mistake, where 
disgrace and sorrow attend her to her dying day. 

3. The legislation of the last fifty years both in 
America and in Europe has been gradually raising 
the age of consent, and we believe eventually it 
will be twenty-one years in all Christian countries. 

122 



AGE OF CONSENT 

In two States, Wyoming and Kansas, the age 
now is eighteen years (and we understand that the 
States of New York, Colorado, Delaware, New 
Hampshire, and Missouri have this winter passed 
laws making the age of consent eighteen years) ; 
and below we give the list of States, showing the 
limit at which legislators have placed the age at 
which young girls may consent to their ruin, prior 
to this year : — 

Seven Years, — Delaware. 

Ten Years, — Alabama, North Carolina, South 
Carolina. 

Twelve Years, — Kentucky, Louisiana, Texas, 
Wisconsin, Virginia. 

Thirteen Years, — Iowa, New Hampshire, Utah. 

Fourteen Years, — Arizona, California, Connec- 
ticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, 
Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, 
New Mexico, North Dakota, ^Ohio, Oregon, Ver- 
mont, West Virginia. 

Fifteen Years, — Montana. 

Sixteen Years, — Arkansas, Colorado, District of 
Columbia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, 
New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South 
Dakota, Tennessee, Washington. 

Seventeen Years, — Florida. 

We regret that Connecticut does not occupy a 
better position in this list. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Ratcliffe Hicks. 
123 Geo. H. CowELL. 



A. P. A. RESOLUTION 

Mr. Speaker : 

I NOTICE in the Journal that the Resolution is on 
the table by my motion. Now, I propose to move 
to take that Resolution from the table, and then 
will move to refer it to the Committee on Federal 
Relations. I do this for the purpose of disposing 
finally of this matter; and if the House see fit 
indefinitely to postpone the Resolution, I cannot 
seriously object to it. However, I should think 
the proper reference to be to the Committee on 
Federal Relations. 

This Committee dates back as far as the origin 
of the Constitution of the State, and was evidently 
contemplated as a Committee to which should be 
referred all matters having a political bearing. I 
think there has been no matter of any kind re- 
ferred to this Committee this year, and it would 
seem as if it were almost a matter of respect to the 
Committee that something should be referred to 
them. It is no honor to put a man on a Com- 
mittee which never meets once during the entire 
session. 

124 



A. P. A. RESOLUTION 

If this resolution does not agree with the sen- 
timent of this House, this Committee can pre- 
pare a suitable Resolution that will agree with 
the sentiment of the majority of this General 
Assembly. 

Now, I did not introduce this Resolution, and I 
am not the father of it ; but it was introduced by 
a worthy member of this General Assembly, and I 
believe that in the main it expresses the sentiment 
of the vast majority of the people of the State of 
Connecticut. 

This Resolution, as I understand it, is aimed at 
an organization whose almost sole object is to pre- 
vent the election to any office of any man who 
is unfortunate enough to belong to the Catholic 
Church. Now, I take it that the members of this 
General Assembly are opposed to all secret politi- 
cal organizations, whether you call them Anarchists, 
Ku-klux, Know-nothings, or A. P. A.'s. The wel- 
fare and preservation of American institutions de- 
pend upon a free and open discussion of all political 
matters ; and the establishment, either in the North 
or the South, in the East or in the West, of secret 
political societies is dangerous to the perpetuation 
of American institutions, and in my humble opin- 
ion is the quickest way to sap the foundations of 
the Republic. 

I am determined not to become involved in any 
discussion with any member of this General Assem- 
bly upon matters of politics or religion. I respect 
125 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

the opinion of every member, and expect every 
member to respect mine. 

I am anxious to have this matter taken from the 
table, and disposed of in some orderly way ; and 
therefore I make this motion, and leave it to the 
members of the General Assembly to decide what 
action they wish to take. 



126 



A QUESTION OF PRIVILEGE 

Mr. Speaker : 

I RISE to a matter of personal privilege. 

I read in the " Hartford Courant " this morning 
what purports to be an abstract of a debate which 
took place in this House yesterday. In it I am 
made to say that certain lawyers, whose names are 
given, are disreputable lawyers. 

The House will bear me witness that what I did 
say, and all that I said, was that " I do not believe 
there is a reputable lawyer in Connecticut, except- 
ing the member from Putnam, who favors the 
Moiety system in dealing with criminals." I be- 
lieved then, and I believe now, that in opposing 
that section of the bill establishing the Law and 
Order League, I was voicing the nearly unanimous 
sentiment of the legal fraternity of this State. For 
my action here yesterday I have been repeatedly 
thanked by the officers of this League ; and I am 
sure that this obnoxious provision would, in the 
end, have brought the League into public contempt 
and disgrace. 

I have ever accorded to the member from Put- 
nam and to the reporter of the " Hartford Courant " 
127 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

that kind and courteous treatment which one 
gentleman should extend to another. 

I regret that such an unfair and unjust represen- 
tation — or more properly such a misrepresenta- 
tion — of what I did say should go forth to the 
people of this State, and I can do no less than 
humbly to protest against the same. 



128 



ON THE DEATH OF FRED- 
ERICK DOUGLAS 

Mr. Speaker : 

It seems fitting that this General Assembly, 
representing as it does the sovereign State of Con- 
necticut, should pause for a moment, and pay this 
tribute of respect to the memory of a good and 
great man who has passed away. It seems also 
not altogether inappropriate that it should be rep- 
resented by a member of a party to which he 
never belonged. 

Frederick Douglas, however, was always of an 
honorable opinion, and was too great a man to 
wear with patience the shackles of any party. 
Whenever the acts of his own party did not accord 
with his conscience and judgment, he had the 
courage and the manhood to say so ; and when- 
ever the acts of the Democratic party accorded 
with his judgment, he had also the courage and 
the manhood to give them his approval. 

Since the earliest settlement of this country, no 

man has ever arisen whose life and career are 

a greater incentive to all young men struggling for 

a position in the world. Born in slavery and 

9 129 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

abject poverty, and of a hated race, he rose by his 
own untiring efforts and commanding genius. He 
became a leader among leaders, and the represen- 
tative man of his race for all ages. He filled two 
Continents with his greatness. Presidents and 
nobles vied with one another in doing him honor, 
and were proud of his acquaintance and friend- 
ship. 

Brass may corrode, and marble may mould, but 
the name of Frederick Douglas will live forever 
in American history, — a heroic man in a heroic 
age. 



130 



EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH 

Delivered before the Cojmnittee of the Legislature 
in New Haven, in 1875, in favor of the Char- 
ter of the Dime Savings-Bank of Meriden. 

But the city of Meriden is only in the gristle of 
its youth, not having yet grown into the bone and 
muscle of its manhood. It is not an old man 
tottering to his grave; it is but an infant just 
learning to walk. 

Meriden has a glorious future before it. If 
Providence shall spare your lives for five, ten, or 
fifteen years, you will see that the progress of Meri- 
den in the past will be as nothing compared with its 
progress in the future now just dawning upon us ; 
and among the institutions which the best interests 
of Meriden to-day demand, and which its future 
growth will imperatively call for, is that institution 
which these petitioners pray for at your hands, a 
Dime Savings-Bank, — an institution which if char- 
tered will be one more stream of business which, 
with a hundred other streams, will make that great 
river of business on which Meriden is to float on 
to its future prosperity, 

131 



LAST SPEECH IN THE 
ASSEMBLY 

Mr. Speaker : 

It is a great pleasure that I am permitted to be 
present at the closing hours of this General Assem- 
bly, and to contribute my mite of praise for the 
able and courteous manner with which you have 
presided over the proceedings of this House during 
this session. You have won for yourself the praise 
and the commendation of political friends and 
foes alike, and well may you be proud of your 
extraordinary success. 

The session which is about to close will mark an 
epoch in the history of this State. Never within 
my knowledge has so much wise and beneficent 
legislation been adopted at one session of the 
General Assembly since this State first took its 
position among and linked its destinies with the 
great sisterhood of States. Some errors may have 
been made, some mistakes that time and experi- 
ence will modify or eradicate ; some things have 
been done that ought not to have been done, and 
some things have been left undone that ought to 
have been done. I fear, sir, there has been a 
132 



LAST SPEECH IN THE ASSEMBLY 

wild and wanton expenditure of the public money ; 
that we have not cut our garment to our cloth; 
and that when in two years another General Assem- 
bly shall meet in these halls, instead of finding, as 
we did, a surplus of $500,000, they will find the 
surplus has vanished, and that a State tax can be 
no longer evaded even for political reasons. 

I rejoice to think that much more could have 
been accomplished for the welfare and the honor 
of this State had it not been for the other branch 
of this Legislature. The slogan of future political 
contests in Connecticut is to be the reform and 
remodelling of that unrepresentative political oli- 
garchy that sits in the Senate Chamber, — the 
pride and the hope, as now constituted, of the 
corporate interests of this State, and the enemy of 
the welfare and progress of the Commonwealth we 
all love so much. I have not the time, and this is 
not the place, to describe and enumerate the wise 
and healthful legislation which has been either 
mutilated or strangled in that Chamber. Another 
time and another place we will try to find for this 
work. Yet I am not disheartened. This great 
constitutional wrong will be righted by the people 
of Connecticut, and soon righted, sir. I have faith 
in the intelligence of the American voter. 

At a gathering of the most illustrious literary 

men of the British Empire a few years ago, held 

in the city of London, a renowned French savant 

was asked to give a toast. He rose, and in the 

^33 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

presence of that brilliant assembly, in the presence 
of lords and nobles, an hereditary aristocracy, and 
in that monarchical country, he gave this toast : 
" I ask you to drink to human intelligence, the 
sovereign of the world ! " Much more, I repeat, 
is human intelligence a sovereign in this Ameri- 
can Republic than in any other land on which the 
sun shines. 

Now, gentlemen, pardon me for having taken so 
much of your time. I carry away with me from 
this gathering some of the pleasantest memories of 
my life. The acquaintances and friendships formed 
here during this session of the General Assembly 
will be cherished by me until my dying day. To 
you, sir, especially and to all the members of this 
House, I return my most sincere and heartfelt 
thanks for all the kindness and courtesy extended 
to me during this session ; and I now bid you, one 
and all, a most affectionate farewell. 



134 



MISCELLANEOUS ADDRESSES 



SPEECH 

Of Ratdiffe Hicks in reply to Geti. Joseph R. Haw- 
ley, delivered at Meriden, October 2, 1880. 

I HOLD in my hand a Republican paper which 
contains the speech that Hon. Joseph R. 
Hawley is dehvering in the various towns in this 
State in the pending canvass. The Republican 
party in Connecticut is proud of Joseph R. Hawley, 
and justly so, I think ; for to my thhiking he is by 
far the ablest representative of that party in the 
State. 

In times past General Hawley has done some 
things which endear him to all inteUigent voters. 
During the administration of Ulysses Grant, when 
crime held high carnival in Washington, he dared 
to stand up, alone and unfriended, on the floor of 
the American Congress, sacrificing every personal 
and political ambition and association of his life, 
and say, " I am coming to a time, now, when I 
must seriously consider whether I shall go on with 
some of my radical friends." Further on he said 
that the proposed legislation of the Republican 
party would end in ''creating a centralized gov- 
137 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

ernment upon the ruins of the original theory of 
the republic ; and it might be in the end, I fear, 
the destruction, the final failure of this experiment 
of free government." 

After the election of 1876, Ulysses Grant, in 
order to effect the Presidential steal and rob the 
Democratic party of their victory, sent into the 
Southern States a large number of active and un- 
scrupulous Republican leaders ; but he did not 
send General Hawley, for he dared not trust him 
in the nasty work that was to be done. 

In the following year, when Mr. Hayes was con- 
fronted with two governments in Louisiana, and 
was desirous of knowing which he ought to recog- 
nize, he sent a commission to that State, of which 
General Hawley was a member. That commis- 
sion, after fully investigating all the facts in the 
case, unanimously reported in favor of recognizing 
the Nichols (or the Democratic) government. 
Nichols was voted for at the Presidential election 
of 1876, and had really about seven hundred votes 
less than the Democratic Presidential electors. No 
Democrat in the land needs any further proof that 
the electoral vote of Louisiana was stolen from 
Tilden and Hendricks. 

During the past summer, by word of mouth and 
through the columns of his paper. General Hawley 
has resolutely contended against the nomination of 
the unscrupulous Blaine and the manikin Grant, 
always contending that it was better for the Re- 
138 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

publican party to nominate its ablest and purest 
men. 

I shall to-night give my answer to General 
Hawley's address, and the intelligent voters of 
Connecticut shall be the jury, and decide between 
us. I shall say nothing here to-night that I would 
not say if General Hawley were sitting upon this 
platform. I trust that the day has not yet arrived 
in American pohtics when men cannot discuss 
politics and still be gentlemen. When that day 
does come, I want to be counted out of politics. 
I regard General Hawley's speech as the strongest 
representation that can be made of the Republican 
cause in this canvass, and therefore it is that I 
invite your serious attention to what I have to say. 

General Hawley commences his address by 
claiming " that the Republican party has reduced 
the national debt a thousand millions of dol- 
lars." In that he is mistaken. The national 
debt in 1865 was $2,680,647,869, and in 1879 
it was $2,245,495,072, — making a reduction of 
$435,151,797. But General Hawley forgot to 
state that the people have paid in the last fifteen 
years in taxes to the national government the 
fabulous sum of $5,170,332,042 ; and for all this 
immense contribution by the people there is 
nothing practically to show for it except this re- 
duction in the national debt of about $400,000,000. 
You have paid enough in taxes in the last fifteen 
139 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

years to pay off the entire national debt twice. You 
have paid $12 to get $1 reduction in the national 
debt. At the same ratio the youngest voter in 
America will have passed to his final reward, and 
the people will have paid the debt twelve times 
before it will be extinguished. In other words, on 
a basis of fifty millions of people, every man who 
has a wife and four children would pay in taxes 
the sum of about $5,000 in order to pay off the 
national debt. On the basis of forty millions of 
people, every man with a wife and four children 
has paid on the average to the national government 
in taxes, in the last fifteen years, the sum of about 
$720. Do you wonder, then, that it is hard work 
for a poor man to get up in the world ; and do 
you not think that it is almost time for a change ? 

Again, the national debt was, in 1872, $2,234- 
482,993.20, and in 1879 it was $2,245,495,072; 
so that the debt has increased in the last six years 
$11,013,079. Perhaps General Hawley can tell 
you how long it will take to pay off the debt at 
the same ratio. No other man can tell you. Is 
this not a pretty poor encouragement after all the 
taxes you have paid? 

Again, General Hawley forgot to tell you that 
the entire expenditures of the national government 
for the seventy- two years prior to i860, including 
two wars, was $1,506,706,141, and that the ex- 
penses of fifteen years of Republican rule since the 
war have been $5,170,332,042 j so that in fifteen 
140 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

years the Republicans have spent $3,663,625,901 
more than was spent in the seventy-two years pre- 
vious to the war. 

Look at it in another way. The people of 
America pay annually as interest upon our na- 
tional and municipal debts, in round numbers, 
^182,000,000. The people of the British Empire 
pay on the same debts annually $135,000,000. Yet 
America is poor in comparison with the wealth of 
the British Empire. The revenue of the British 
government is about $400,000,000, and the amount 
raised for local purposes is about $104,337,000, — 
so that the whole cost of governing the British 
Empire is $504,437,000 a year; while the revenue 
of the United States is about $260,000,000, and 
the amount raised for local purposes is about 
$330,000,000, — so that the whole cost of govern- 
ing the United States is $590,000,000 against 
^504>337jOoc) in Great Britain. And yet the British 
government supports in magnificent idleness a royal 
family, maintains a great standing army of over 
two hundred thousand soldiers, possesses the finest 
navy in the world, and plants colonies and sustains 
governments in all the four quarters of the globe. 

A man who has a wife and four children, which 
is about the average size of families (of course 
some pay more and some less, I am now speaking 
of the average), pays annually in taxes — national, 
State, and town in America — over $700. The 
annual expenditure of the United States govern- 
141 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

ment is per head $6.13; of the German, $3.15 ; 
and of the Russian, $4.83. 

Under the rule of this Republican party, remem- 
ber, my friends, that the rich grow richer, and the 
poor grow poorer. The population of the United 
States since the Republican party came into power 
has increased about fifty per cent, while taxation 
has increased six hundred per cent. What poor 
man on a bare pittance of ^1.25 or ^1.50 a day 
can lay by anything for a stormy day? The work- 
ing-man is now just barely able to keep the wolf 
from his door. Nowhere do I see any houses 
being erected by working-men. If we had not 
been blessed above all other countries in our 
national resources, the American people would 
long since have been bankrupt. But sooner or 
later, if there is no change, the masses I fear will 
tire of such enormous burdens, and a political 
eruption will destroy the government under which 
we are living. 

Let me impress this matter upon your memory. 
Let me illustrate it to you in another way. There 
is no need crying over the wrongs of distant 
people ; there is serious and solemn business at 
home for every thoughtful American voter. 

Suppose a laboring man earns $1.50 a day 
(which is the average wages) ; and suppose that 
out of it, after supporting himself and family, he 
can lay by $2 a week. He cannot do more than 
that. Now, if there are six in the family, he 
142 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

pays in annually to the national government $36 ; 
so that it takes all he can save in four and 
a half months to keep up this extravagant and 
costly Republican administration. 

One hundred and fifteen men came over from 
England last summer to work in a cutlery factory 
at Bridgeport, and all but twenty-five have returned, 
as they could save more money there than here. 

Let no man deceive himself with the thought 
that he pays no taxes ; for everything that a man 
eats or wears pays a tax to the government. Some 
people are so foolish as to say that the poor man 
pays no taxes ; but he is the only man that cannot 
escape taxation, the only man that pays his full 
taxes. He must live and he must be clothed, and 
so there is no escape for him from taxation ; but 
the rich man may hide away his property, or if he 
is a merchant he adds the tax to the price of his 
goods. The same is true of the manufacturer. 
The rich man in order to pay his taxes is not 
obliged to sacrifice any of his luxuries; but the 
poor man is obliged to deprive himself, his wife 
and children, of many of the common necessities 
of life. 

I appeal to every man, rich and poor, white and 
black, native and foreign born ! If you are satis- 
fied with the way the government has been admin- 
istered during the past fifteen years, you will 
continue to vote the Republican ticket. Remem- 
ber, however, my wealthy manufacturing friend, 
143 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

that when the government crushes the working-man 
it destroys your best customer ; for it is upon the 
trade of the masses of the country that all business 
finally depends. And I appeal with confidence to 
all men who are tired of this unparalleled extrava- 
gance and wild riot with the people's money, to 
vote in November next with the only party that 
promises a change for the better, — the poor 
man's party, the Democratic party. 

Again, General Hawley said in that speech : 
" I belong to a party that struck the chains from 
three millions of slaves." This is about all the 
stock in trade that the Republican party has had 
for the last twenty years. But I pronounce the 
statement untrue. Show me, in any standard his- 
tory of this country, where such a fact is recorded. 
No historian has ever yet dared to go down to 
posterity upon such a falsification of the facts. 
Such a fact finds root only in the heated imagina- 
tions of Republican orators. 

Every man in the Republican party, from Presi- 
dent Lincoln down to the humblest tide-waiter, 
declared that the War of the Rebellion was only 
waged for the perpetuity of the Union, and that 
the relation of master and slave should not be dis- 
turbed. In the darkest hours of the Rebellion, 
when it seemed as if the cause of the Union must 
go down in midnight darkness, some of our gen- 
erals — General Butler among others — advocated 
144 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

the enlistment of the colored men into our armies. 
The suggestion was approved by the authorities at 
Washington as a last military resort, as building a 
fire in the enemy's rear ; and the end crowned the 
means. The colored soldier became an American 
citizen, and history records upon its truthful pages 
that freedom came to the colored man as a result 
of the war. 

But if General Hawley thinks otherwise, was 
there not some better way than to have sacrificed 
half a million of precious human lives and caused 
untold misery to a million bleeding hearts, and 
squandered five thousand millions of dollars, and 
mortgaged the industry of four generations? 
Would it not have been better to purchase the 
freedom of the slaves? You could have bought 
the freedom of every slave in America, and planted 
him on African soil, for one half the money you 
spent to free him, and you would have saved so 
many precious lives and so much misery. 

The trouble with General Hawley' s logic is that 
he strikes from the universe a living, loving God ; 
that he leaves nothing for God to do in this fallen 
world ; that he closes his eyes to a divine provi- 
dence which presides over the affairs of nations as 
well as of men, and that 

"shapes our ends, 
Rough-hew them how we will." 

In the place of a beneficent God he wishes to 
install the Republican party, and to that party the 
10 145 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

colored man is to hold himself indebted for all the 
good of this hfe. Other men may do as they 
please ; but were I a colored man, I would rather 
hold my liberty as a heritage from divine Provi- 
dence ; I would rather worship at the shrine of 
the ever-living God than bow down to any false 
image, to any golden calf, though it may have 
written upon it those talismanic words, "The 
Republican party." 

Again, General Hawley said that he was sur- 
prised to see so many of the men who were coming 
to this country cling to the Democratic party. 
What other party can they cling to ? What other 
party bids them welcome to these Western shores? 
What other party has been their unflinching friend 
through all the changes of American politics, from 
the foundation of the government down to the 
present hour? What party is it that carries its 
puritanical notions so far that it would make crim- 
inals of three millions of our citizens — the most 
industrious, the most peaceful, and the most valua- 
ble — because they see no harm in the use of 
lager beer as a beverage, while intelligent physi- 
cians are daily prescribing it to weak women and 
sickly children ? 

It was the Democratic party which in 1804 

repealed the odious law passed by the Federal 

party requiring fourteen years' residence before an 

alien could become a citizen. It was the Demo- 

146 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

cratic party which furnished to the world that 
famous doctrine which has been the shield and 
protection of so many of our foreign-born citizens, 
— " Once an American citizen always an American 
citizen," — which has made it safe for them to 
revisit the homes of their ancestry. It was the 
Democratic party which strangled the bastard and 
fiendish organization — born of the worst passions 
of the human heart — which in 1855 burnt the 
houses of those noble women, the Sisters of Char- 
ity, who for centuries have spent their lives minis- 
tering to the wants of the poor and the sick and 
the unfortunate of every race and clime ; the 
organization which attempted at the same time to 
shut out from the privilege of American citizen- 
ship all foreigners, and which found its advocate 
and organ in General Hawley's paper, the " Hart- 
ford Courant." 

That spirit is not dead, but only slumbers ; and 
it but needs some rallying cause to break forth 
anew. There is an organization in existence now 
known as the American Alliance, and one of its 
principles is as follows. Listen, my fellow-men, 
while I read you the infamous declaration : — 

" I. An amendment to the naturalization laws 
limiting suffrage to persons born in this country or 
of American parents. 

" 2. The election of American-born citizens only to 
official positions in this country." 



147 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

The present Republican President in America is 
a member of that organization. That I may not 
misquote him, let me read you his own words, and 
let no lover of his country forget them : — 

I have just received your letter informing me of my 
election as a member of your admirable Alliance. 
Return my thanks to the Alliance, as I deeply sympa- 
thize with its principles. 

I remain your fellow-citizen, R. B. Hayes. 

To-day, in a New England State, — Rhode 
Island, — a foreigner cannot vote unless he owns 
$134 worth of property; while the most illiterate 
and degraded negro, if he happens to have been 
born on American soil, can enjoy the privileges of 
citizenship. General Hawley and his political 
associates have not yet learned that a man so un- 
fortunate as to have been born on the other side 
of the broad Atlantic is as good as a colored man 
born here. And still General Hawley pretends to 
wonder why foreigners cling to the Democratic 
party. 

It was foreigners that planted the American col- 
onies ; it was foreigners that enabled us to win the 
battles of the Revolution ; it was foreigners that 
saved the Union ; it is foreigners that run our fac- 
tories, that till our soil, that work our mines ; it is 
foreigners that have kept America in the vanguard 
of nations for the last one hundred years. And 
still if you were to go out with me to-night into 
148 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

the streets of this thriving city of Meriden, and 
ask every Repubhcan whom we should meet why 
he was not a Democrat, nine out of every ten 
would give the woman's argument, " Because it is 
not respectable to be a Democrat, as all the for- 
eigners belong to the Democratic party." If you 
could have gone back with me through nineteen 
centuries, and we could have together traversed the 
narrow stony streets of Jerusalem, and could have 
asked the proud Jew why he was not a Christian, he 
would have told us because it was not respectable 
to be a follower of the meek and lowly Jesus ; that 
only poor and ilUterate people belonged to the dis- 
ciples of the risen Lord. But the time came, as 
you know, when the proud Jew was an outcast in 
every country of the inhabited globe, and a beggar 
at every court in Europe. 

Oh, my delicately clad proud son of Yankee 
sires, beware lest the day may come when your 
children will lag behind in the race of life with the 
descendants of the despised foreigner ! The God 
of the Universe moves in a mysterious way, and 
his love encircles alike the pathway of the poor 
and the contemned, of the alien as well as that of 
his proud Republican neighbor. 

Again, General Hawley says that "the Demo- 
cratic party is similar to the Tory or Conservative 
party in England," and he asked our foreign-born 
voters to look into this matter and think it over 
149 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

carefully. Ah, General Hawley, you either read 
English history wrongly, or your memory fails you. 
It is the Liberal party in England which has ex- 
tended the suffrage to the poor ; which has passed 
the burial act so that any clergyman may perform 
the funeral rites in the churchyards of the estab- 
lished Church ; which has passed an act so that the 
Catholics of Ireland are no longer compelled to 
support a hostile church ; which has passed the 
hare and rabbit bill, the employer's liability act, 
and many other acts in the interest of the laboring 
classes. 

How has it been in America? It was the 
Democratic party which crushed the Society of 
Cincinnati in its effort to establish an hereditary 
aristocracy in this country. It was the Democratic 
party in Connecticut which in 1818 wiped out the 
provision in the Constitution which compelled every 
man to contribute to the support of the Congre- 
gational Church. It was the Democrats who 
repealed the law once upon our statute books that 
no foreigner should own any land in this State. 
It was the Democratic party which in 1843 repealed 
the provision of our Constitution that every voter 
should hold property, and gave the suffrage to the 
poor man. It is to a Democratic governor of this 
State that you owe the law which provides an 
exemption of a certain portion of the wages of the 
working-man. That Democratic governor was none 
other than that good man who sleeps so peacefully 
150 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

to-night beneath the autumn leaves, your own 
dearly loved and highly honored fellow-citizen, — 
his name is dear to every Connecticut heart, — 
Thomas H. Seymour. It was the Democratic con- 
vention in this State which two years ago pledged 
itself in favor of the repeal of the factorizing pro- 
cess, and in favor of a homestead exemption, — two 
things dear to the heart of the working-man. It is 
to a Democratic governor of this State that you owe 
more than to any other man living the establishment 
of free schools in Connecticut, so that the poorest 
man in the community may give his children the 
benefits of an education. That man is your stand- 
ard-bearer in this coming contest. Need I men- 
tion his name? It is the Hon. James E. English. 
The Republicans say they passed the homestead 
act for the working-man. But just as soon as they 
had passed that law, they gave away to rotten cor- 
porations two hundred million acres of the best 
land, and compelled settlers to pay two prices for 
it. With the single exception of the homestead 
act, which is of no benefit to the poor people of 
Connecticut, there has not been a single act passed 
in the last one hundred years in America in the in- 
terest of the working-man that has not been passed 
by the Democratic party. 

Again, General Hawley says, " the RepubHcans 
prosecuted the war to a successful close." 

Here again I would rather have the facts than 
151 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

General Hawley's statement. Listen while I read 
these to you : — 

cifofpc Union Total Vote, Rep. Vote, 

stares. Volunteers. iS6o. i860, 

Delaware 13)654 16,039 3)8 15 

Maryland 49)7oo 92,562 2,214 

W. Virginia 33)063 34.192 464 

Missouri 108,773 165,508 17,128 

Kentucky 78,540 146,216 i)364 

Totals 282,608 464,467 24,965 

Does it look as if nobody but Republicans went 
to the war? New York State — a Democratic 
State with a Democratic governor — sent two-fifths 
of all the soldiers in the Union army. 

When the Democratic soldiers were at the war 
fighting and the Republicans were home making 
money, the Republicans always carried the elec- 
tions ; but when the war was over and the soldiers 
came home, we carried Connecticut, New Jersey, 
New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and many 
other Northern States. 

There was not one Union victory won in the 
War of the Rebellion without the aid of Democratic 
soldiers. There was not one bloody field of all 
that dreadful carnage where Democratic soldiers 
were not to be found fighting for the Union. And 
in the darkest hours of the Rebellion, when the fate 
of the North hung trembling in the balance, and all 
the world awaited anxiously the issue of the contest 
at Gettysburg, one man, the hero of the hour, rode 
152 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

up and down the Union lines, and nerved every 
heart to victory. As a Union soldier in Meriden, 
who was on his body-guard, described it to me the 
other day, in the fiercest of the battle that man's 
horse was shot under him, when he rose, took off 
the bridle, leaned over and kissed the dying beast, 
leaped upon the horse of his aid, and rushed on 
to the front of the battle. That man is your 
standard-bearer, the idol of American soldiers, — 
Winfield Scott Plancock. 

Republican papers and Republican orators are 
trying to injure the military reputation of General 
Hancock. They know no other way of destroying 
his estimation with the American people. But my 
only answer to all their foolish gibberings is this : 
that honors won on the bloody fields of battle and 
recorded on the pages of the world's history cannot 
be injured by the childish prattle of disappointed 
stay-at-home Republican politicians. 

Again, General Hawley claims " as one of the 
achievements of the Republican party the putting 
of the ballot into the hands of every adult man." 

I have just shown you how groundless this claim 
is when tried by the test of history. I have shown 
you how the poor man of this country owes his 
privileges of suffrage to the Democratic party. I 
have shown you what unjust discriminations are 
made in the State of Rhode Island against worthy 
men who had the misfortune to be born on foreign 
153 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

soil. Three years ago the RepubUcan party of 
this State passed a law forbidding the making of 
electors in the evening, — the most convenient 
time for the working-man. Selectmen can meet 
for any other purpose during any hours of the day 
or night ; so can school visitors, assessors, boards 
of relief, common council, and every other muni- 
cipal body. Does it look as if the Republicans 
wanted the poor man to vote? Oh, my friends, 
they are willing that the poor man shall vote if he 
will only vote as they tell him. 

Now, listen to what I shall read, and similar 
notices have been posted in many factories in New 
England. I invoke the attention of every unpre- 
judiced voter within the sound of my voice to- 
night, and I appeal to him whether he approved of 
such things. This notice was posted at the last 
Presidential election in a factory in Westerly, R. I. 
Let me read : — 

To ALL Voters employed by the N. E. Granite Works 
AND THE Smith Granite Co. : 
Having become fully convinced that the election of 
Samuel J. Tilden and a Democratic Congress on the 
7th of November, will do a great injury to our busi- 
ness, and will also be a national calamity, we do most 
earnestly advise all voters in our employ to vote the 
Republican ticket, most especially for a Republican 
Member of Congress. You will by so doing secure 
your own interest, our interest, and the interest of your 
country. 

The N. E. Granite Works. 
The Smith Granite Co. 
^54 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

It appeared in evidence before the Committee 
of Congress that the principal owner in the New 
England Works was a citizen of the city of Hart- 
ford, and an intimate friend of General Hawley. 
It was no less a person than the Hon. James G. 
Batterson, of the Hartford Accident Insurance 
Company. Oh, "consistency, thou art a jewel" 
that becomes even a Republican politician ! Let 
us hear of no more bulldozing in the South so long 
as this civilized coercion is going on all over these 
New England States ! 

Again, General Hawley says " the first act of the 
Democratic party when it came into power was to 
demand the repeal of the election laws which pro- 
tected the citizens against unblushing and whole- 
sale frauds at the ballot-box." 

Ah, no man knows how anxious these Republi- 
cans are to prevent fraud at the ballot-box ! They 
have just completed the registry list in the city of 
Philadelphia, and there are on that list twenty 
thousand more names than the census of last June 
contained of all men over twenty years of age, 
naturalized and unnaturalized, sane and insane, in 
prison and out of prison in that city. The registry 
list is larger than the city of New York, although 
New York is one-half greater than Philadelphia. 
A Republican in Meriden told me himself that 
he voted three times in one day in Philadel- 
phia for Hartranft, the Republican candidate for 
governor. 155 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

Now, under this damnable law, the Republicans 
have appointed in the cities of Philadelphia, New 
York, and Cincinnati a long list of marshals, larger 
than the police force in each of those cities. 
These men, the vilest in the world, have been paid 
out of the national treasury for no other purpose 
than to keep men from voting the Democratic 
ticket. I am wearying you to-night, but let me 
read of only one of these sickening scenes that 
took place in New York City only two years 
ago : — 

"Just prior to the election of 1878, the process was 
repeated by Davenport; and some three thousand 
more were arrested, and their naturalization papers 
taken away from them by this man Davenport, who 
had no more right to overrule the courts and declare 
the naturalization papers they issued fraudulent than 
had one of you. But few of the persons arrested on 
the charge of having fraudulent papers were ever 
brought to trial, and all who were were discharged, 
their naturalization papers being held valid. Daven- 
port, however, accomplished his object; and by his 
arbitrary and illegal acts prevented and deterred thou- 
sands of lawful voters from casting their votes. The 
scene before this chief supervisor and commissioner, 
Davenport, has been thus described: — 

" ' From early morning till after the polls were 
closed, his rooms were packed and jammed with a 
mass of prisoners and marshals. Not only were they 
crowded beyond their capacity, but the halls and cor- 
ridors were thronged by those who were unable to 
obtain admission, so that the counsel representing the 



IN REFLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

prisoners and the bondsmen who were offered to 
secure their release had the greatest difificulty, and 
were frequently unsuccessful, in obtaining entrance. 
In addition to all this was that delectable iron pen on 
the upper iloor, in which men were crowded until it 
resembled the black hole of Calcutta, and where they 
were kept for hours hungry, thirsty, and suffering 
every way until their cases could be reached. With 
scarcely an exception, these men had gone to the polls 
expecting to be absent but a short time. There were 
car-men who had left their horses standing in the 
public streets, men whose situations depended on their 
speedy return. Every imaginable vexation, inconve- 
nience, injury, and wrong which the mind can conceive 
existed in their cases. And over all this pushing, 
struggling crowd Mr. Commissioner John I. Daven- 
port sat supreme, calmly indifferent to everything but 
the single fact that no man who was arrested was 
allowed to vote,' " 

Now let me read you a list of some of the men 
who served as marshals in New York at the last 
Presidential election, and the cheek of every 
Republican ought to blush as I read them : — 

•'Theodore, alias Mike Anthony, alias Snuffy, of 24 
Cherry Street, a laborer, thirty-five years of age, mar- 
ried, and cannot read or write. Anthony was arrested 
by Detective James Finn of the fourth precinct on 
July 24, 1870, for larceny from the person, and was 
held in $2,000 bail for trial by Justice Hogan. He was 
indicted by the grand jury on the charge on the 23d of 
August last. 

"Joseph Frazier, of 279 Water Street, is a thief and 
confederate of thieves. 

157 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

" James Miller is the keeper of a den of prostitution 
in the basement of 339 Water Street. 

"James Tinnigan keeps a similar den in the base- 
ment of 337 Water Street. 

"James Sullivan, alias Slocum, keeps a house of 
prostitution at 330 Water Street, which is a resort for 
desperate thieves. 

" Frank Winkle keeps a house of prostitution at 
337a Water Street. 

"John, alias 'Buckey' McCabe, supervisor of the 
Eighth District, Fifteenth Ward. He is now under 
indictment for shooting a man with intent to kill. 
This precious ' supervisor ' was first known to the po- 
lice for his dexterity in robbing emigrants. His picture 
is in the < rogues' gallery' at police headquarters in 
this city, No. 225. He was known as Pat Madden, 
alias ' Old Sow,' alias Honsey Nicholas, alias Dennis 
McCabe. His real name is Andrew Andrews. 

" Joseph Hurtnett, supervisor Eighteenth Ward. 
Arrested June 3, 1869, as accessory to the murder of 
Richard Gerdes, a grocer, corner of First Avenue and 
Twenty-fourth Street. 

" Henry Rail, supervisor Eighth Ward. One of the 
principals in the Chatham Street saloon murder; went 
off West to escape punishment, and has only been 
back a few weeks. 

" James Moran, supervisor, Third District, Eighth 
Ward. Arrested on Sunday last for felonious assault. 

" William (alias Pomp) Hartman (colored), marshal 
Twenty-second Ward. Arrested a few days since for 
vagrancy. 

" Theodore Allen, marshal Eighth Ward. Now in 
prison for perjury, and keeps a house, the resort of 
panel thieves and pickpockets, on Mercer Street. 
158 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

"Richard O'Connor, supervisor Seventh District, 
First Ward ; has been for years receiver of smuggled 
cigars from Havana steamers. 

"L. H. Cargill, supervisor Ninth District, Ninth 
Ward ; tried in United States Court for robbing tlie 
mails. 

" John Van Buren, supervisor Twelfth District, 
Eighth Ward ; was at one time in sheriff's office and 
discharged for carrying off a load of seized goods 
from the establishment of Richard Walters in East 
Broadway. 

"Mart Allen, marshal Eighth Ward. Served a 
term of five years in the Connecticut State-prison; 
sentenced to Sing Sing for five years by Judge 
Ward. 

"John McChesney, supervisor Fourth District, 
Ninth Ward. Associated with thieves; bears a bad 
character generally. 

"William Cassidy, supervisor Twelfth District, 
Ninth Ward ; is a street bummer, without any visible 
means of support. 

"Thomas Mclntyre, marshal Eighth Ward. Has 
been frequently arrested for beating his aged mother ; 
sent several times to Blackwell's Island. 

"Timothy Lynch, marshal Sixth District, First 
Ward ; a Washington market-lounger. 

" Peter Mose, marshal Sixth Ward ; habitual 
drunkard. 

"John Connor, supervisor First District, First 
Ward; keeps a disorderly gin-mill, resort of lowest 
characters. 

"Francis Jordan, supervisor Sixth District, First 
Ward. Lives in New Jersey; was turned out of the 
post-office by Postmaster Jones for bad conduct. 
159 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

" Bernard Dugan, supervisor Eighth District, First 
Ward; habitual drunkard. His wife left him on 
account of his drunkenness, and procured a divorce 
on that ground. 

"John Tobin, supervisor Ninth District, First 
Ward ; arrested about six months ago for grand 
larceny. 

" Patrick Murphy, supervisor Fourth District, 
Sixth Ward ; two years ago distributed fraudulent 
naturalization papers, and would furnish them to 
anybody that would promise to vote for Grant. 

"Edward Sieven, Jr., supervisor Second District, 
Fourth Ward ; has an indictment now pending against 
him in court of general sessions for cutting a boy 
named Kilkenny. 

" Michael Foley, supervisor Fourth District, Fourth 
Ward ; well-known repeater, voting for anybody that 
will pay. 

"James F. Day, supervisor Seventh District, Fourth 
Ward ; shot at a man in fight between the Walsh asso- 
ciation and a gang from Water Street. 

"John Connors, alias 'Jockey,' supervisor Third 
District, Fourth Ward ; a well-known desperate 
character. 

"Michael Costello, marshal Sixth Ward; bounty- 
jumper during the war, 

" Harry Rice, supervisor Thirteenth District, Sixth 
Ward ; was connected with the Chatham Street con- 
cert-saloon murder, and fled to Nebraska to escape 
punishment. 

" Thomas Lane, supervisor Seventeenth District, 
Sixth Ward; formerly keeper of a notorious den at 
Five Points, headquarters of thieves and robbers. 
i6o 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

"John Lane, supervisor Twenty-second District, 
same Ward ; was indicted for receiving stolen goods. 
Has served a term in Sing Sing. 

" Edward Foley, supervisor Sixth District, Ninth 
Ward; arrested last year for stealing a watch. 

" Humphrey Ayers, supervisor Eighteenth District, 
Ninth Ward ; arrested six years ago for robbing the 
U. S. Mail. 

"John Dowling, supervisor Nineteenth District, 
Ninth Ward; arrested August 20, 1869, for till- 
tapping. 

"James Fitzsimmons, supervisor Twentieth District, 
Ninth Ward ; arrested August i, 1868, for robbery. 

"John Martin, supervisor Fifth District, Twelfth 
Ward ; arrested a few years ago under an indictment 
for arson. 

" Samuel Rich, supervisor Fourth District, Thir- 
teenth Ward ; served a term of two years at Sing 
Sing for felonious assault. 

" William P. Burke, supervisor Twentieth District, 
Eighth Ward; served his term in the State-prison of 
Massachusetts for burglary; also two years in the 
New York State-prison. 

" James McCabe, supervisor Fourth District, 
Eighth Ward; now confined in the Tombs under 
indictment for highway robbery. 

" William Irving, supervisor Fourteenth District, 
Eighth Ward ; has served a term in Sing Sing prison 
for burglary committed in the Eighth Ward, and has 
never been pardoned. 

" Patrick Henry Kily, alias Fred Williams, super- 
visor Twenty-second District, Eighth W^ard ; keeper 
of a house of ill-fame, a resort of the lowest and vilest 
characters. 

II 161 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

" Patrick Hefferman, supervisor of the Tenth Dis- 
trict, Sixth Ward ; arrested some time since for 
attempted murder. 

" Frederick Sterringer, supervisor Eighth Ward ; 
has been arrested several times for keeping disorderly 
house. 

" J. F. Baderhop, supervisor Tenth Ward ; arrested 
for murder a few years since. 

" Ed. Weaver, marshal in Eighth Ward ; has been 
but a short time out of State-prison, where he has been 
serving out his sentence. 

"Walter Prince (colored), marshal Eighth Ward; 
now in prison awaiting trial for highway robbery. 

"Andrew Andrews, alias Hans Nichols, marshal, 
panel thief; been sentenced two or three times to 
State-prison, and has just returned from Blackwell's 
Island." 

I read this from page 1,636 of the Congressional 
Globe for the Forty-first Congress, third session, 
February 24, 1871. 

What a magnificent roll of Republican statesmen, 
guardians of the purity of the ballot-box, that 
would be for Governor Jewell to send up and ask 
Parson Beecher to read some Sunday morning from 
tlie pulpit of the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn ! 
Oh, I do not know how it may seem to other men ; 
but to me, when I hear a Republican politician 
talking about the purity of the ballot-box, it is like 
the drunken man preaching temperance, the thief 
preaching honesty, the arch conspirator of hell 
preaching the sublime doctrines of the Christian 
162 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

religion. I feel like exclaiming, in the words of 
the heroic dead, " O Liberty ! how many crimes 
are committed in thy name ! " 

General Havvley talks about ''the Democratic 
party trying to starve the government into submis- 
sion." Ah, has he read history so poorly? There 
is no country in the world where the people have 
any sort of control over the management of their 
public affairs whose rulers would have dared to 
throttle the voice of the people as Rutherford B. 
Hayes has. Not the queen of England, not the 
kings of Italy or Spain, not the proud emperors of 
Austria or Germany, would have dared thus to 
defy their parliaments. 

Again, General Hawley said that "the Demo- 
crats when they obtained control of Congress 
appointed a large number of investigating com- 
mittees, but found nothing wrong. It is true," he 
added, " we had the Belknap and Credit Mobilier 
scandals, but these were long before investigated 
and condemned by committees of a Republi- 
can Congress. The Republican party purified 
itself." 

My time will not permit me to go over the long 
dark catalogue of crimes committed by the Repub- ■ 
lican politicians during the last fifteen years. I 
might summon to the stand a Republican, Ben- 
jamin Bristow, Secretary of the Treasury under 
General Grant, to prove how the whisky thieves 
163 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

cheated the government out of what has been 
estimated at fifty miUions of dollars. One man, 
an intimate of General Grant, has lately made a 
confession that one ring in St. Louis, in 1S72, 
stole seven millions of dollars with the connivance 
of leading Republican politicians, and that one- 
half of it was spent as an election fund to elect 
General Grant President. 

I might summon to the stand another Republi- 
can, Professor Marsh, of your own Yale College, 
and show how the whole Interior Department was 
one reeking mass of corruption under Grant. 

I might summon A. T. Stewart, if he were alive, 
and other Republican merchant-princes of New 
York City, and show you how they had been 
cheated and robbed by Republican officials in the 
Custom House in that city. 

I might summon Mr. Columbus Alexander and 
many of the wealthiest Republican tax-payers in 
Washington to tell you of the gigantic swindles 
perpetrated in that city by Republicans. 

I might summon Admiral Porter to tell you 
how we have spent four hundred and eighty mil- 
lions on the navy, and have nothing to show for 
it. Then I might go over the blackest pages in 
all that wild riot of corruption and fraud, and 
show how two hundred millions were stolen by 
carpet-bag rascals in the South. 

But my time forbids. I will only summon two 
witnesses to the stand. They shall be Republi- 
164 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

cans, and the mouths of every Repubhcan in the 
land will be dumb to deny their statements. I 
have to-night only time to give you a sample of 
how the people have been robbed by Republican 
officials. I could stand here and read by the 
hour from these truthful but sad pages which 
record the crimes of these Republican officials. 

Columbia, South Carolina, 1871. 
Mr. Josephus Woodruff, 

Bought of George Symmers, Commission Mer- 
chant, Wholesale and Retail Dealer in Gro- 
ceries, Provisions, Wines, Liquors, Cigars, &c. 

1871 

Feb. 25. I case champagne, W. E. H. (Sena- 
tor W. E. Holcombe ; sent to Co- 
lumbia Hotel) $50.00 

Feb. 25. I box cigars, $10 ; 2 gallons whisky, 
$16, W. E. H. (Senator W. E. 
Holcombe; sent to Columbia 
Hotel) 26.00 

Feb. 27. 3 dozen ale, $10.50; 2 dozen porter, 

$7 17-50 

Feb. 27. Discount of draft 35-oo 

Feb. 27. I gallon best brandy, $20; i gallon 
best sherry, $12, for W. E. H. 
(Senator W. E. Holcombe, Co- 
lumbia Hotel) 32-00 

Feb. 27. 2 boxes cigars $12. 50-^25; 2 demi- 
johns, $1.50, for W. E. H. (Sena- 
tor W. E. Holcombe, Columbia 

Hotel) 26.50 

165 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

Feb. 28. I gallon whisky, $7; i box cigars, 

$12.50 $19-50 

Feb. 28. I case champagne, $50; 3 boxes 

cigars, $i5-$45 95-oo 

Feb. 28. 2 gallons whisky, $8-$ 16 ; i gallon 

sherry, $12 (Senator D. Biemann) 28.00 

Feb. 28. I gallon brandy, $20; jug and demi- 
john, $2 ( Senator D. Biemann) . 22.00 

Total $351-50 

Received payment, 

George Symmers. 
(D. McKay.) 

I read first from the great organ of the Repub- 
lican party, the " New York Tribune " : — 

" Unhappily, there is no room to doubt that the 
local rule established by knavish adventurers who had 
gained the confidence of the ignorant colored voters 
was corrupt and oppressive in the extreme. Of this 
fact, no investigation was needed to convince candid 
men. The disclosures at the time of the Vicksburg 
massacre were such as to prove that property owners 
had been goaded on to the point of desperation by 
outrages which no civihzed community long endures. 
Ample proof exists that the local rule in other parts 
of the State was infamously corrupt." 

And now 1 read the spoken words of that man 

whose name is on the lips of every Republican in 

this canvass, Hon. Carl Schurz. On the 5 th of 

October, 1872, Mr. Schurz spoke in Buffalo. The 

166 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

following is the passage of his speech in which he 
discussed the Southern question : — 

" A blight has fallen over the South. It was not 
so much the war which was the cause of it, as it is the 
shameful corruption which pervades the State govern- 
ments. Frauds plunder, shameless robbery^ — these 
are the characteristics of the Southern State govern- 
ments. And who is responsible for it ? Was it not 
Grant's administration to which all these robbers, all 
these plunderers, clung for support ? But how could 
these thieves keep themselves in power? Their most 
powerful aid was the Federal government, and the 
next powerful aid they sought in the ignorant negro 
vote. Secret societies were organized to keep the 
negroes in subjection and to make them vote just as 
the Administration and its servants would want to 
have them vote. The thieves control these negroes, 
and it was under their influence that they have been 
arrayed against the whites. The blacks and the 
whites stand face to face as enemies, for the negroes 
are tinder the influence of the most villanous scoun- 
drels that were ever allowed to disgrace a great and 
noble country. If there can be anything worse than 
civil war, it is the war of races ; and these scoundrels 
have adopted just the very means to bring about such 
a war. At the head of the negroes are the great 
thieves that rule the South, and rely on Grant for 
support. The support is given to them freely, and 
every possible means has been taken to make them 
blind instruments of the powers that be, and the foot- 
step for a second term of President Grant." 

But General Hawley says the Republican party 
has purified itself. A party is to be judged by its 
167 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

candidates. I will not weary you to-night in re- 
hearsing the official delinquencies of James A. 
Garfield and Chester A. Arthur. Suffice it for me 
to say that the Republican press of the land only 
a few months ago denounced them as unworthy 
the suffrages of the American people. My only 
witness against Mr. Garfield shall be the written 
words indorsed and recorded by six thousand 
Republicans in Mr. Garfield's Congressional Dis- 
trict in 1876. These men were his political friends, 
and had known him from boyhood. Listen while 
I read : — 

" 4. Resolved, That there is no man to-day officially 
connected with the administration of our national gov- 
ernment against whom are justly preferred more or 
graver charges of corruption than are publicly made 
and abundantly sustained against James A. Garfield, 
the present representative of this Congressional Dis- 
trict and the nominee of the Republican convention 
for re-election, 

"5. Resolved, That since he first entered Congress 
to this day there is scarcely an instance in which rings 
and monopolies have been arrayed against the interests 
of the people, that he has been found active in speech 
and vote upon the side of the latter ; but in almost 
every case he has been the ready champion of rings 
and monopolies. 

"6. Resolved, That we especially charge him with 
venality and cowardice in permitting Benjamin F. 
Butler to attach to the Appropriation Bill of 1873, 
that ever-to-be-remembered infamy, the salary steal, 
and in speaking and voting for that measure upon its 
168 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

final passage ; and we charge him with corrupt disre- 
gard of the clearly expressed demand of his constit- 
uents that he should vote for its repeal, and with 
evading said demand by voting for the Hutchinson 
amendment. 

" 7. Resolved, That we further arraign and denounce 
him for his corrupt connection with the Credit Mobil- 
ier, for his false denials thereof before his constituents, 
for his perjured denial thereof before a committee of 
his peers in Congress, for fraud upon his constituents 
in circulating among them a pamphlet purporting to 
set forth the findings of said committee and the evi- 
dence against him, when, in fact, portions thereof 
were omitted and garbled. 

" 8. Resolved, That we further arraign and charge 
him with corrupt bribery in selling his official influ- 
ence as chairman of the Committee on Appropriations 
to the DeGolyer Pavement Ring, to aid them in secur- 
ing a contract from the Board of Public Works of the 
District of Columbia ; selling his influence to aid said 
ring in imposing upon the people of said District a 
pavement which is almost worthless at a price three 
times its cost, as sworn to by one of the contractors ; 
selling his influence to aid said ring in procuring a 
contract to procure which it corruptly paid $97,000 
' for influence ; ' selling his influence in a matter that 
involved no question of law, upon the shallow pretext 
that he was acting as a lawyer ; selling his influence 
in a manner so palpable and clear as to be so found 
and declared by an impartial and competent court 
upon an issue solemnly tried." 

Against Mr. Arthur I will summon a man, a life- 
long Republican, whose word no Republican in 
169 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

this city dares to dispute. On January 28, 1879, 
John Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury, wrote 
President Hayes as follows : — 

" If, to secure the removal of an officer, it is neces- 
sary to establish the actual commission of a crime by 
proofs demanded in a court of justice, then it is clear 
that the case against Mr. Arthur is not made out, 
especially if his answer is held to be conclusive, with- 
out reference to the proofs on the public records and 
tendered to the committee and the Senate. But if it 
is to be held that, to procure the removal of Mr. 
Arthur, it is sufficient to reasonably estabhsh that 
gross abuses of administration have continued and 
increased during his incumbency ; that many persons 
have been regularly paid on his roles who rendered 
little or no service ; that the expenses of his office 
have increased, while collections have been diminish- 
ing ; that bribes, or gratuities in the nature of bribes, 
have been received by his subordinates in several 
branches of the Custom House ; that efforts to correct 
these abuses have not met his support, and that he 
has not given to the duties of the office the requisite 
diligence and attention, — then it is submitted that 
the case is made out. This form of proof the de- 
partment is prepared to submit." 

What need to dwell on this sad picture ? There 
is not a Republican but is willing to admit that the 
nominations at Chicago were a mistake, and were 
made, in the language of your own illustrious fel- 
low-citizen, ex-Governor Hubbard, "amid break- 
ing booms and in a thoughtless desperation." 
170 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

Again, General Havvley claims " that the South- 
ern people have come back to run this government 
according to their own ideas, and that they intend 
to pay the rebel debts," and says he heard Ben 
Hill say so. 

Now, I will not say that so good a man as Gen- 
eral Hawley will say anything that is not true ; but 
I will say one thing, that if General Hawley should 
ever be so fortunate as to be a member of the 
United States Senate, the last man in all that re- 
nowned body whose pathway General Hawley will 
care to cross will be that man who towers a giant 
amid that brilliant assembly, — Hon. Benjamin 
Hill, of Georgia. Now, what did that • illustri- 
ous senator say? It is my platform, it is your 
platform, it is the platform of four millions of the 
liberty-loving Democracy of America : — 

" If I had control of the party, as I have not, and 
shall never have, if my voice were worth anything, 
there are four things I would have the Democratic 
party proclaim to the world in most convincing terms, 
and adhere to with unflinching fidelity. I would have 
the party say — 

" I. We will not pay war losses, loyal or disloyal, 
unless we make a few exceptions of religious, educa- 
tional, and charitable institutions, and very few of these. 

" 2. We will vote no more of the public money, and 
no more of the public credit, and no more of the pub- 
lic lands, to build up or enrich mammoth monopolies 
in the shape of railroad corporations. 

" 3. We will in good faith pay every dollar of the 
171 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

public debt, principal and interest, in good money of 
the standard value. 

" 4. We will restore the Constitution to the country 
and honesty and economy to its administration, con- 
fining the general government to its limited, delegated 
sovereign powers to promote the general welfare, and 
leaving the States unmolested in the exercise of their 
reserved sovereign powers to promote the local wel- 
fare of the people. 

" Do these four things, and, in my judgment, the 
child is not born who will witness the termination of 
Democratic administration in his country, and the 
tongue has not been gifted with language that can 
express the prosperity which will follow to all our 
people in every section of our country." 

Words worthy to have been written on the 
sacred tablets that were delivered to fallen man 
on the ever memorable heights of Mount Sinai ! 

Again, General Hawley said " the Southern peo- 
ple are hostile to the North, and intend to wipe 
out all the legislation of the war." 

It would be useless for me to deny what General 
Hawley said, for it might at once be objected 
against my denial that I am a Democrat. But I 
will read to you the spoken words of a Republican 
who has recently visited the Southern States, and 
whose word ought to be to every honest Repub- 
lican as conclusive as are the edicts of the Pope 
to every faithful Catholic. I read from a speech 
made by General Grant at Bloomington, 111., in 
June last : — 

172 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

" It may be appropriate on this occasion to refer to 
my trip through the Southern States, and to what I 
have seen while travelling. I have been gratified at 
my reception in all the recently rebellious States. I 
passed from Philadelphia to Florida on my way to 
Havana, and on my return came via Texas from 
Mexico, thus passing through all the rebellious States ; 
and it will be agreeable to all to know that hospitality 
was tendered me at every city through which I passed, 
and accepted in nearly all of them by me. The same 
decorations were seen in every State that are seen 
here to-night. The Union flag floated over us every- 
where, and the eyes of the people in those States 
are as familiar with its colors as yours, and look 
upon it as guaranteeing to them all the rights and 
privileges of a free people, without regard to race, 
color, or previous condition of servitude. In most of 
the States, upon the reception committees, side by 
side, were the men who wore the blue and the men 
who wore the gray; and reception addresses were 
made in part by those who wore the blue and those 
who wore the gray. We have no reason to doubt that 
those who wore the gray will fulfil all they have 
promised in loyalty to the flag and the nation." 

And now I will let General Hawley and General 
Grant have it out. The first spoke for political 
effect, the last to give expression to the honest 
sentiments of a kindly heart. 

Again, General Hawley said " the Democrats are 
in favor of free trade, and that business will be 
paralyzed if the Democrats come into power." 

The Republicans are taking up this tariff discus- 

173 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

sion simply for effect. They know there is nothing 
to it, but they think it will scare some voters and 
keep people from talking about the crimes of the 
Republican party. With an annual expenditure 
by the national government which cannot be less 
than two hundred millions yearly for the next fifty 
years, how is all this vast sum of money to be 
raised except by a tariff which must necessarily be 
protective ? 

But this is not a question upon which men 
divide politically. Only a few days ago a Demo- 
cratic State convention in New Jersey adopted a 
platform in favor of a protective tariff. The 
strongest advocate of protection to American in- 
dustry in Congress to-day is the Democratic 
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. 
Samuel J. Randall, of Philadelphia. Here is what 
Wade Hampton of South Carolina says : — 

"The South generally feels that its best interests 
require the protection of home industries. With the 
growing unity and prosperity of our country there will 
soon be large manufacturing interests in the South." 

Not many months ago a Republican convention 
in Iowa declared in favor of free trade. The 
strongest advocate to-day in New England of 
merely a revenue tariff is a paper that supports 
Garfield for President, and always supports Gen- 
eral Hawley when a candidate, — the " Springfield 
Republican." That I may not misquote it, here 
are its own words, in its issue of September 2 7 : 
174 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

" As other issues pale, the tariflfgets more and more 
discussion. The leading manufacturing interests are 
certainly ready to accept a reduction of duties. The 
New England cotton, paper, and woollen interests, we 
believe, would not oppose a moderate reduction of 
duties. They find that protection has been overdone 
until domestic competition necessitates combinations, 
short time, and other artificial agencies to conserve a 
profit. They see that the hope of reaching a foreign 
market upon the present basis is a delusion. We 
shall never be able to reach a foreign market until we 
have reduced the cost of our production and placed 
ourselves more nearly on a par with England, the 
country of free trade. 

" As a large revenue is necessary, and the Democrats 
are not likely to increase the internal revenue by rais- 
ing the taxes on spirits and tobacco, it is clear that a 
tariff for revenue is likely to afford all the protection 
needed . Besides, the Democrats are not of one mind ; 
they are disposed to protect Louisiana sugar, Georgia 
iron, Texas wool, Pennsylvania and New Jersey man- 
ufactures. So that neither party is 'solid' in this 
issue, neither party is likely to go to extremes, 
although the Republicans are rather disposed to 
represent to artisans in protected industries that 
their employment is in danger from Democratic 
success." 

The most unflinching and uncompromising 
advocate of free trade in America is that stanch 
Republican paper in New York City, the " Even- 
ing Post." The most prominent Republican can- 
didate for Congress to-day from the city of Boston 
is a well-known advocate of free trade. I find this 
175 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

in the " Hartford Courant " of Saturday last from 
their regular Boston correspondent : — 

" Mr. John W. Candler has the Republican nomi- 
nation here by ahnost a unanimous vote. I am pleased 
to say, too, that he never retracted one word of what 
he had said against the iniquities of the present tarifE 
in order to get it. He will be elected, and will make 
an excellent member. Mr. Candler can render ser- 
vice by his information as regards the tariff." 

Ah, General Havvley, there are some iniquities, 
it seems, in this tariff; and why not be honest 
when you talk to the voters of Connecticut, and 
tell them so? 

The most successful and wealthiest woollen 
manufacturer ever in America, a Republican worth 
his millions, was an advocate of free trade ; I 
mean Hon. Edward Harris, of Woonsocket, R. I. 
At a convention of woollen manufacturers in Mas- 
sachusetts only a few months ago, it was openly 
discussed whether they would not declare in favor 
of free trade. One of the most enterprising and 
wealthiest manufacturers in New Haven County 
— a Republican who employs hundreds of men, 
and who has sent his agents into every market of 
the world — said to me a few days ago that he 
found it impossible to sell his goods in foreign 
markets so long as we kept up our tariff on raw 
materials, and that as for him he was in favor of 
free trade ; for then, instead of selling to forty 
176 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

millions, he could sell to a thousand millions of 
people. All that any Democrat proposes to do is 
to put upon the free list a few of those articles 
which are consumed by the poor people of this 
country. 

At the last session of Congress the Democratic 
party repealed the tariff on that article which keeps 
the breath of life in nine-tenths of the working- 
people of New England, — quinine. It seems as 
if General Hawley, however, were treading on 
dangerous ground; for while he appears to be 
such a great stickler for a high tariff, he is on 
record as favoring the repeal of duties on that 
article which he uses so largely himself, — paper. 
What sublime assurance for Republican politicians 
to go through this State talking against free trade, 
when their candidate for President has been one 
of the most pronounced advocates of free trade in 
Congress, and not long since presided over a free- 
trade meeting in Washington ! He is also a mem- 
ber of the Cobden Club of London, the great free- 
trade organization of England, which is said to 
dispense large sums of money in this country and 
all over the world to disseminate the doctrines of 
free trade. General Garfield has also voted 
repeatedly in Congress in favor of the reduction of 
the tariff rates upon foreign goods coming into 
competition with American industry; and when 
he was nominated by a Republican caucus as 
Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1877, 
12 177 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

five Republican members of the House from 
Pennsylvania bolted the nomination because ' he 
had been so prominent an advocate of free-trade 
measures. 

Every manufacturer and every working-man 
ought to be in favor of Senator Eaton's bill to 
drive this question forever from politics. The 
Republican politicians want to defeat that bill and 
keep this question in politics ; for their hope of 
political success lies in forever keeping the manu- 
facturers on the anxious seat, to contribute funds 
and bulldoze their workmen in the interest of the 
Republican party. 

The rich and the poor, the manufacturer and the 
working-man, are all interested in a change in the 
Administration. In the last four years a Demo- 
cratic Congress has reduced the appropriations 
^120,000,000. Do you know how much that is? 
It is $1,500,000 for Connecticut alone. This 
reduction was made against the violent opposition 
of the Administration. Again, we are all interested 
in having a new set of men to keep the public 
accounts. It is admitted by everybody that there 
have been forced balances made on the books at 
Washington, — that is, that the receipts and ex- 
penditures could not be made to balance ; and so 
enormous sums — in some cases of $100,000,000 
— have been arbitrarily added in order to make 
the accounts come out even. Again, the whole 
system of public expenditures needs overhauling. 
178 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

The men now in office have been there twenty 
years, and are so fixed in their rotten ways that the 
only hope of the country is in clearing out and 
starting anew. Let me give only a sample. In 
Hartford the government is building a post-office 
which has already cost over ^750,000, and will cost 
one million. Mr. James G. Batterson, who built 
the Capitol at Hartford, a Republican in politics, 
says he will put up such a building for ^300,000. 
This is but a sample in every building that is being 
erected all over the country by the United States ; 
and in all the supplies that are being purchased 
for the government the people are being robbed 
and cheated in the same way. It is with a nation 
as with an individual, — it prospers by what it saves. 
There is no royal road to wealth. Retrenchment 
and reduction in the expenditures are worth more 
to the business interests of the country than all 
other things put together. Every manufacturer, 
every business man, every tax- payer, ought to 
throw aside the prejudices of a lifetime, and vote 
for the only party that promises retrenchment and 
honesty in the public expenditures. 

Let me leave this topic by reading from a stanch 
Republican paper, the " New York Tribune," upon 
the doings of a Democratic Congress, and I ask 
every Republican to listen while I read : — 

" But it has made a success in three directions. It 
exposed a corrupt Secretary of War and drove him 
from office. It investigated an unscrupulous minister 
170 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

to England, and scourged him home. It reduced 
appropriations, — sometimes wisely, often unwisely ; 
but at all events it reduced them, and so, for the 
present, checked the enormous expenditures of public 
money. For these let this Congress have all thanks ; 
and let us frankly say, too, that the whole credit of 
them is due to the Democratic House." 

Again, General Hawley tried to frighten the 
manufacturers of Meriden over the dangers of 
Democratic rule, and regaled them with nightmare 
dreams of coming misfortunes. Let me read just 
a line from a Republican paper, the " Springfield 
Republican," that will not swallow any of this 
nonsense, and that dares to speak its honest 
sentiments : — 

" The Republican party for twenty years has so 
governed the country, if the current cry of the organs 
is true, that in a time of profound peace one party can- 
not succeed the other without ruining the nation ! If 
this were true, the Republican party ought to go forth- 
with. It is not true." 

Again, from the *' New York Herald " : — 

" What is the use, again, of the Republican organs 
and stump speakers pretending to a harrowing fear 
that if the Democrats should come in they will pay 
the rebel debt, or rebel war-claims, or the value of the 
slaves, and generally destroy the credit of the country 
and bankrupt the treasury and the tax-payers .'* Not 
one of them believes in this silly stuff, which yet is a 
staple of the Republican canvass." 
1 80 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

Who is the wealthiest manufacturer in all New 
Haven County? Why, James E. English. In 
Fairfield County? Why, that sterling Democrat, 
Nathaniel Wheeler. In Litchfield County ? Why, 
Hon. W. H. Barnum. In Middlesex County? 
Why, one of your Presidential electors, Henry G. 
Hubbard. In Tolland County? Why, a Demo- 
crat, Charles Fox, of Stafford. And who is presi- 
dent of the wealthiest manufacturing company in 
Hartford County? Why, another of your Presi- 
dential electors, Richard W. Jarvis. Who is the 
wealthiest manufacturer in New Jersey, employing 
five thousand men ? Why, Hon. Abraham S. Hewitt, 
a Democrat. Who is the wealthiest manufacturer 
in New York State? Why, a Democrat, Erastus 
Corning, of Albany. Who is the wealthiest mer- 
chant and manufacturer in the United States, 
and probably in the world? Why, a Democrat, 
Henry Hilton, of New York City. 

Oh, what folly, what nonsense, to preach that 
these men have not the interests of their country 
at heart, and would do anything to harm the 
business interests of America ! Such ideas live 
only in the disturbed imaginations of frightened 
Republican office-holders. 

So much for General Hawley. One thought 

more and I am done. There is, to my way of 

thinking, one question at issue in this contest that 

outweighs, a thousand times, all other questions. 

i8i 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

It is the question of the right of the people to 
choose their own officers ; it is the rock upon 
which our Hberties rest, upon which our govern- 
ment exists, and upon which depends the prosper- 
ity and the very existence of the republic. Strike 
it out, and the repubUc goes down in midnight 
darkness. 

In 1876 the Democratic party elected to the 
Presidency the greatest living American statesman, 
Samuel J. Tilden, of New York. Every leading 
Republican paper and every Republican in the 
land, from Governor Hayes down to the humblest 
sweeper in a government building, admitted it 
to be true — except one man. That man was the 
most dangerous, unprincipled, and unscrupulous 
politician that this or any other country ever saw. 
He knew that the electoral votes of three Southern 
States were in the hands of the greatest rascals 
that ever went unhung. In the watches of the 
midnight hours, when all good men were sleeping, 
he telegraphed to those willing instruments the 
conspiracy against the liberties of the American 
people ; and then began that series of plots and 
counterplots which have no parallel in history, and 
which constitute the darkest page in the history of 
the new republic. 

I cannot stop to dwell upon the damning facts 

that make all American citizens hold their heads in 

shame. Among the men who were sent down by 

General Grant to watch the count in Florida, the 

182 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

foremost man among them all was that great 
Republican lawyer who had filled the office of 
Attorney-General of New York, — General Barlow. 
After careful investigation, he became convinced 
that the Democrats had fairly carried Florida, and 
these are his words. Listen, my Republican 
friends. Here is what General Barlow says : — 

"Mr. Davenport called upon me with a despatch 
from President Grant asking if I would go to Florida; 
and so I went. By the evidence laid before me I was 
forced, in mv own mind, to believe that the Democrats 
had carried the State. It was my own honest opinion 
that the vote of the State ought to have been given to 
the Democrats. The returning board did not apply 
the same rule of action to Republican counties as to 
Democratic. I am a thorough Republican, and went 
South in the interests of the Republicans." 

Turn again to Louisiana. I have told you how 
General Hawley himself is on record that the 
electoral vote of Louisiana justly belonged to 
the Democrats. I cannot stop to read you all the 
convincing evidence of that crime, without a name 
and without a precedent in history. Let me read 
you this, however, as a sample : — 

Ao-reement between Anderson and Nash, Represen- 
lative in Congress, New Orleans, November 21, 



i: 



By an agreement entered into this day between 
James E. Anderson, Supervisor of Registration for the 
parish of East FeUciana, La., and Charles E. Nash, 
183 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

member of Congress from the Sixth Congressional 
District of Louisiana, it is agreed tliat said Anderson 
shall suppress evidence showing that the said parish 
of East Feliciana was fairly carried by the Democratic 
party at the election held November 9, 1S76, thereby 
electing the entire Democratic State ticket and Con- 
gressmen, — in consideration of which the said Nash 
agrees to secure for said Anderson the position of 
Naval Officer of the Port of New Orleans, La. 

James E. Anderson. 
C. E. Nash. 

The above agreement was signed in our presence 
this 2 1 St day of November, 1876. 

J. M. TOMLINSON. 

O. B. Morgan. 

This agreement, as Anderson testified, was long 
ago put into the hands of Mr. Matthews, and was 
in his possession to Anderson's knowledge until the 
middle of April last. In fact, in a letter written 
March 27, 1877, ^^- Matthews himself acknowl- 
edges that it is in his hands. This letter he here 
reproduces, along with another to General Harlan 
of Kentucky, since appointed by President Hayes 
to be a Judge of the Supreme Cotirt. 

Mr. Anderson, — You are at liberty to use the 
note on the other page as an introduction to General 
Harlan, who is one of the Commission, and you can 
talk to him as freely as to me. You should say to 
Nash, if inquired of, that I have the agreement. 

Stanley Matthews. 
184 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

Cincinnati, March 29, 1877. 
Gen. J. M. Harlan : 

Dear Sir, — This will be presented to you by Mr. 
James E. Anderson, who may desire to communicate 
with you confidentially. 

Yours truly, 

Stanley Matthews. 

Headquarters Republican Party of 
Louisiana, Mechanics' Institute, 
New Orleans, September 25, 1876. 
To R. B. Edgeworth, Esq., Supervisor of Registra- 
tion, Parish of Plaquemime, La. 
Dear Sir, — It is known to this Committee, from 
examination of the census of 1875 [the fraudulent one 
above referred to], that the Republican vote m your 
parish is three thousand ; and the Republican majority 
is two thousand two hundred. 

You are expected to register and vote the full 
strength of the Republican party in your parish. 
Your recognition by the next State Administration 
will depend on your doing your full duty in the 
premises ; and you will not be held to have done your 
full duty unless the Republican registration reaches 
three thousand, and the Republican vote is at least 
three thousand. 

All local candidates and committees are directed to 
aid you to the utmost in obtaining this result, and 
every faciUty is and will be afforded you; but you 
must obtain the result called for herein without fail 
Once obtained, your recognition will be ample and 

^^ ' Very respectfully, &c. 

185 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

Other letters explaining the modus operandi of 
" not failing in the results expected " appear in 
testimony. But this was not all. More specific 
instructions were given orally to the supervisors. 
Mr. Edgeworth testifies thus : — 

" Governor Kellogg came to the parish in company 
with Governor Warmouth, Judge Pardee, District- 
Attorney Price, and others. I showed him letter of 
instructions of 25th of September. Governor Kellogg 
told me it was extremely necessary to have that 
majority from that parish, and that I must by all 
means send in that majority from that parish. I told 
him I thought it was impossible ; the registration 
would not reach three thousand, and it was impossible 
to do it. Governor Warmouth brought eight men 
from New Orleans and placed them at the different 
polls. These men are now all office-holders at New 
Orleans. They went to the polls and remained there 
all day." 

And he further testifies that " after the election 
Governor Kellogg said to me that I had not carried 
out his expectations." 

When the question came up in Congress as to 
how the electoral vote of Louisiana should be 
counted, there were two Republican Congressmen 
from Massachusetts who, by their commanding 
talents and the purity of their lives, to-day outrank 
all men in the Republican party in New England. 
One of them to-day is president of Amherst 
College, — President Seelye ; the other is that man 
who last year refused a Republican nomination for 
186 



IN REPLY TO GENERAL HAWLEY 

governor in Massachusetts, — Henry L. Pierce, ex- 
mayor of Boston. Here is what these men said 
when they voted to give the electoral vote of 
Louisiana to Tilden and Hendricks. These are 
the words of ex-Mayor Pierce on counting the 
electoral vote of Louisiana : — 

" That gross frauds were committed in the canvass 
of votes is admitted, I believe, by both parties; and it 
is also admitted that the returning board acted in the 
discharge of their duties in an arbitrary and illegal 
manner. I should be recreant to my convictions if I 
neglected to place on the imperishable records of the 
House my dissent from the rule which it is proposed 
to establish." 

Here is what President Seelye said : — 

" No nation, said Niebuhr, ever died except by 
suicide ; and the suicidal poison is engendered not 
so much in the unjust statutes of government, as in 
the immoral practices of a people which the govern- 
ment is unable to punish and unable to restrain. It is 
because I fear that the strict and accurate interpreta- 
tion of the Constitution applied by the electoral vote 
of Louisiana would imperil that vote in the future, and 
incur the very danger which the Constitution intended 
to avoid, that I am unable to concur with such an 
application." 

There was one Republican in the Senate of the 
United States whose magic eloquence and tran- 
scendent genius places him at the acknowledged 
head of the Republican party. When the question 
187 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

came up in the Senate of counting the electoral 
vote of Louisiana, Conkling turned to his Republi- 
can colleagues and said, " Gentlemen, you may do 
as you please ; but, as for me, I will have no part 
or lot in this gigantic steal." He went out of the 
Senate Chamber declining to vote, and left it to 
others to consummate the greatest steal of nineteen 
centuries. 

And now for four long years the Democracy of 
America have waited in patient silence to redress 
the greatest wrong ever committed, and to punish 
the most deadly blow ever struck at American insti- 
tutions. But the hour of our deliverance draws 
nigh. The free men of America are aroused, and 
are marching to victory. The Democratic party 
has outlived a score of parties, and will outlive this 
Republican party that seeks to maintain itself in 
power by feeding the fires of sectional hatred, and 
by arraying one section of our common and blessed 
country against the other. Methinks I hear the 
beginning of the wild cheers of the stalwart De- 
mocracy which will go up to heaven on the ides of 
November next, over a country redeemed and dis- 
enthralled from Republican rule. Methinks I can 
read in the courses of the stars in heaven that 
a savior has been born to purify, elevate, and regen- 
erate the politics of America ; and that fifty millions 
of people are waiting to welcome with loud acclaims, 
as President of the proud Republic of the West, the 
great soldier-statesman, Winfield Scott Hancock. 



TO THE TAX COMMISSION OF 
CONNECTICUT 

To THE Tax Commission of Connecticut : 

I HAVE read with deep interest the discussion 
from time to time before your Commission. It 
seems as if all efforts were made principally to 
shield some particular interest, and to transfer its 
burdens to some other interest. This is sticking in 
the bark. It is chasing a shadow and ignoring 
the substance. 

I know we are an old-fogy State, and that re- 
forms move slowly here. But if we are to have 
any change, let us have one for the better ; or let 
us continue on in our old ways until the whole com- 
munity shall have become so disgusted with our 
present system that we shall be ready to cut it up 
root and branch. 

One of the principal branches of governmental 
duties is the levying and collecting of taxes. Our 
system, if you may call it a system, is a piece of 
badly constructed patchwork, and needs an entire 
reformation. It now shields those interests which 
are best able to bear taxation, and imposes taxes 
upon those interests least able to bear it. 
189 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

It remains to be seen whether the mcoming 
Legislature will have the nerve and courage to go 
to the bottom of this whole matter. I am not the 
champion of any particular interest, but I want 
something that is equal and just and permanent ; 
something which imposes taxation upon those in- 
terests that ought and are best able to bear it. 
Every man holds his life and property subject to 
such regulations as may be best for the whole, and 
this he agrees to when he becomes a member of 
any civilized community. 

1. It would be better to have our assessors 
chosen county-wise, and hold oiSce for five years. 
This would secure an equal and intelligent assess- 
ment throughout the county and State. Now 
property is assessed very differently in neighboring 
town 1. In many towns the assessments are never 
legally made, and bunglers are doing the work. 
It needs to be put into the hands of systematic 
and competent men, who will introduce into the 
offices of assessors as much neatness, system, and 
completeness as you find in a bank. If it were 
not for the healing act passed at every session of 
the Legislature to cover up the blunders and mis- 
takes of town officers, one-half of the towns in the 
State would never be able to collect their taxes. 
It has been called " The Fool's Act." 

2. There is no need of an assessment oftener 
than once in three or five years. There is no great 
change in the value of the property in any five 

190 



TAX COMMISSION 

years ; and if there is any change, it is general, so 
that the assessment would bear a like proportion 
to all property, however changed in value. Taxes 
should always follow the property, as all deeds 
should provide that the purchaser shall pay the 
taxes ; otherwise they should be paid by the man 
to whom assessed. 

3. Taxes should be laid on the rental value of 
real estate instead of on its supposed value. Taxes 
should be levied upon live, not dead, property. 
You do not lay taxes on cemeteries or churches ; 
and so you ought not to lay taxes upon a factory 
or a dwelling-house that is unoccupied. Besides, 
if the tax were laid upon the rental value, with 
perhaps a certain per cent added every five years 
for possible increase in value of property, it could 
be more easily and accurately ascertained. Take 
the Hartford Trust Company building. Men 
would differ $25,000 to $75,000 on its real value ; 
but its rental value depends not on guesswork, but 
on book-keeping, and can be accurately ascer- 
tained. It is always well to eliminate guesswork 
as far as possible from all business, and to reduce 
it to a mathematical calculation. 

4. It would be well to dispense with all taxes 
upon personal property. The assessment of per- 
sonal property is so unequal, and so easily and so 
universally evaded, that it is almost a farce and a 
fraud upon the few honest men who pay their full 
taxes. Stocks are transferred to people outside 

191 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

the State, to savings-banks or national banks, to 
escape taxation. Bonds, jewelry, notes, valuable 
goods, etc. are buried so deep that no assessor can 
ever find them. The whole thing is a sham and a 
burlesque on justice. 

5. All special taxes upon insurance companies, 
savings-banks, and railroads are based upon wrong 
principles. They are akin to brigandage, which 
levies where it thinks it can collect the easiest. 
Every man recognizes the justice of levying taxes 
upon rum and tobacco, for they are hurtful ; but 
why select one kind of legitimate business for tax- 
ation, and allow others to go scot-free ? Why levy 
taxes on life-insurance companies, and not on the 
manufacturers of silks, guns, and powder? The 
world can get along as well without the last as 
without the former. The only principle upon 
which such taxes can be sustained is that these 
institutions are spendthrifts, bound to squander 
their property, and that some of it might as well 
go for taxes. Would it not be better to stop think- 
ing how much taxes we can get out of these semi- 
charitable institutions, and spend a little more time 
in trying to make them safe and sound, and as 
permanent as the government itself? Should sav- 
ings-banks in this State be allowed to invest one- 
half their assets in New York City bank-stock, and 
thus furnish the means whereby stock-gamblers 
may force the money of the poor people of Con- 
necticut into Wall Street to the demoralization of 

IQ2 



TAX COMMISSION 

all honest and beneficial business ; to stake the 
assets of our banks where the officers themselves 
do not dare to invest their own money? Who 
would dare to advise the poor people of Connecti- 
cut to invest their money in New York City bank- 
stock ? But there is where it is being invested every 
day. Why should life-insurance companies be 
permitted to scatter their assets to the four quar- 
ters of the earth ? Ought they not to be as safely 
managed and as carefully guarded as a savings- 
bank? Why should it be a race to see whether 
the man or the company will live the longest? 

6. In place of a tax upon personal property, it 
would be better to impose a tax upon the net 
income of all persons and corporations. This 
should include incomes from all sources, dividends 
from savings-banks, interest on government bonds, 
pensions, and wages, where the total exceeds 
a certain sum ; deducting incomes from real 
estate, as that is taxed in another way. If a cor- 
poration makes no money, it should pay no taxes. 
This is the way to encourage struggling industries 
everywhere. It is the strong, not the weak ; it is 
the prosperous, not the poor; it is those who 
enjoy special privileges and reap great rewards, — 
it is such that can and should bear taxation. 
Gould and Vanderbilt pay no taxes. What a 
mockery ! what a travesty on justice and fair play ! 
England, the greatest commercial country in the 
world, whose government is controlled by wealthy 
13 193 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

business men, raises a large proportion of its taxes 
by an income tax, holding that this is the fairest 
tax ever known. No fair and reasonable man, 
however rich he may be, can object to paying his 
proportion of the taxes, only provided all the rest 
of the community pay in a like proportion. 

7. The poll-tax should be abolished. It 
amounts to nothing. It is a relic of bygone 
times. Nobody pays it. But it is desirable that 
every able-bodied man should contribute some- 
thing, no matter if it is a small sum, towards the 
expenses of society. It makes more of a man of 
him. It keeps up his self-respect, and teaches 
him that he is a part of the body politic, and has 
as good a right to express his opinion as aVander- 
bilt, so long as he contributes as much in propor- 
tion towards the support of the government. 
Society might be classified into occupations, and 
every man pay a small license fee annually, which 
shall secure him permission to engage in his par- 
ticular calling, and which shall at the same time 
be a return for that protection and assistance which 
government affords to every man. 

8. One-half the proceeds of the sale of liquor 
should go to the State. It is intoxicating liquors 
that fill our jails, state-prisons, reform and indus- 
trial schools, and that largely necessitate criminal 
courts. Thus is spent one-half of the public 
money. The income tax from railroads, steam- 
boats, mining telegraph, and telephone companies. 

194 



TAX COMMISSION 

should go to the State. Ten per cent of the 
receipts of all exhibitions should be paid to the 
State. The railroads and bank and insurance 
departments of the State should be self-supporting. 
We should charge travelling agents from other 
States the same as those States charge our own. 
The foregoing would produce money enough to 
run the State government ; but if it should not, 
then the remaining sum needed should be assessed 
to each town in proportion to its assessment list. 

9. This is a practical age. The great question 
of the hour is an economic political question. It 
is the problem how to distribute the burdens of 
society in the easiest and fairest way. This is the 
task that confronts the legislator everywhere, and 
is rising into prominence in all the States of the 
Union. It is the question of tariff, of revenue, of 
taxation, and of finance that is to engage the 
thoughtful attention of the American voter for the 
next ten years. 

10. No man knows it all. Every man should 
give his best thoughts to it. These are mine 
to-day. Discussion may change them. The wise 
man sometimes changes his mind; the fool, 
never. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Ratcliffe Hicks. 
Hartford, Conn., Dec. 24, 18S0. 



ADDRESS 

On the Irish Land League, delivered at Hartford^ 
February 28, 1881. 

Mr. President : 

I AM here to-night to do what I can to explain 
the cause of the Land League agitation in Ireland, 
and to place it upon such high grounds that every 
man in whose bosom burns one spark of human 
love — every man who fears his God — will give at 
least his sympathies and prayers to the down- 
trodden people of Ireland. In order that I may 
speak with brevity and exactness, and may cover 
many important facts, I have written out what I 
wish to say. 

The one great question that is to-day agitating 
the minds of the English-speaking race all round 
the inhabited globe is the problem presented by 
the Land League of Ireland. Thinking men, the 
wide world over, are turning their thoughts to this 
question. 

The history of Ireland for two hundred years 

has been a history of agitation and turmoil. I 

shall not attempt, in the short time I have allotted 

to myself to-night, to review its sad history. In 

196 



IRISH LAND LEAGUE 

passing, I can only say that it is a liistory crowded 
with crime, persecution, and suffering ; and it is a 
history that ought to mantle with shame the face 
of every Enghshman as he reads it. Who can 
remain unmoved at " the sight of those long and 
fruitless struggles of a poetic, ardent, inconsolable 
race "? The great Irish orator and lawyer, Henry 
Grattan, aptly described the English policy towards 
Ireland as one " than which you would hardly find 
a worse if you went to Hell for your principles, 
and to Bedlam for your discretion." 

You are all, doubtless, familiar with the com- 
mencement of those outrages committed by Eng- 
lishmen, which two hundred years ago laid the 
foundation of Ireland's misfortunes. It is a page 
in the world's history which for two centuries has 
cried to heaven for vengeance. It is the prayer 
of every liberty-loving soul on this whirling planet 
that the hour of Ireland's deliverance be brought 
to pass, and that the wrongs of centuries be righted 
forever. This question breaks over all national 
barriers. There is no man, be he Jew or Gentile, 
American or Asiatic, but feels in this question a 
personal interest. Ireland is to-day keeping the 
camp-fires of liberty. The sons of Ireland are 
sounding the tocsin of liberty, and every man 
born of woman should extend at least a brother's 
sympathy to these fellow-creatures struggling for 
liberty. 

And, above all other men on God's footstool, 
197 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

this question ought to arouse the sympathy of 
every true American. In the dawn of American 
Hberty, one man, an Irishman, Edmund Burke, 
stood up in the British parliament and pleaded for 
the rights of America in those matchless words 
that have never been surpassed in sixty centuries, 
and that to-day stand as the highest effort of human 
genius. From the opening battle of Bennington 
down to the last skirmish on the far-off Western 
prairies, there has not been one battle fought to 
establish and perpetuate the liberties of America 
where Irish blood has not flowed, and where Irish- 
men have not laid down their lives to save for us 
and our children the free institutions of America. 
We, then, above all other men, basking, as we are 
to-day, in the sun of American liberty, ought not 
to forget this people who are bone of our bone 
and flesh of our flesh. 

Ireland has been called the English poorhouse, 
supported by the people of the United States. For 
half a century the American people have supported 
millions of paupers made by the Irish land system. 
We have sent millions and millions of dollars to 
Ireland to keep the breath of life in her poor 
people, and to fill eventually the coffers of her 
landlords. We, then, have a personal interest in 
the final and permanent settlement of the Irish 
land question. If, however, there is any American 
here to-night who feels no interest in this question, 
let him go to some strange and inhospitable shore 
198 



IRISH LAND LEAGUE 

where his language is not spoken, but where, per- 
chance, he may hear, even though it be from 
a stranger, and an Irishman at that, a few words 
of his own magnetic language, his mother tongue ; 
and then for the first time in his life, perhaps, he 
will realize how near and dear to him is every man 
who speaks the master language of the age, our 
own good Saxon English. 

Some people are so uncharitable as to charge 
Ireland's misfortunes to her own people. They 
say they are to be attributed either to the religion 
the ignorance, or the slothful habits of the Insh 
race Let us examine these charges. 

Does any man dare to tell me that it is the 
Catholic rehgion that has brought these misfortunes 
upon the Irish race? I tell him he is a poor 
student of history. I tell him that the wealthiest 
nation to-day -the one where there are inore 
men retired and living on a competence, where 
there is more thrift and more saving than any- 
where else -is Catholic France. I wonder if m 
three hundred years, with all the unmeasured re- 
sources of this magnificent country of America 
we have not been able to reach the wealth of 
France, — if ten generations have come and gone, 
and we still lag behind, - how many more genera- 
tions must come and go before we stand on a 
level in wealth with Catholic France. God only 

knows ! 

It was Catholic France that built the most 

199 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

stupendous work of engineering of ancient or 
modern times, the Suez Canal. It is Catholic 
France, to-day, that cheerfully and heroically un- 
dertakes to do what all other nations have turned 
from in despair, — dig a ship canal across the death- 
breeding swamps of the Isthmus of Panama. Go 
out with me into the marts of trade, to your fac- 
tories, to your farms, to your savings-banks, and 
where can you find a more thrifty and saving people 
than the Catholic Irish ? They are to-day starving 
the close-fisted Yankee off these bleak New Eng- 
land hills. 

If you tell me that the Catholic religion is not 
consonant with liberty, all your reading has been 
in vain. It was puritanical Massachusetts that 
drove from its borders every man who dared to 
differ from the religion of the Colony. It was 
Catholic Maryland that opened its doors to all 
good men of every religion. Did the Catholic 
religion destroy the devotion to liberty of the 
French patriot, the Marquis de la Fayette, of whom 
it has been said that he was the only man whom 
George Washington ever loved? It is Catholic 
France that to-day flaunts the flag of liberty in the 
face of Europe, and maintains a sister republic 
second to none in the galaxy of nations. 

No ! It is not Ireland's religion or the indo- 
lence of her people. Is it, then, their stupidity? 
If you ask me for the greatest orator of twenty 
centuries, I point you to an Irishman, — Edmund 

200 



IRISH LAND LEAGUE 

Burke, If you ask rae for the sweetest poet in all 
the ages smce the Psalms of David were written, I 
point you to the wandering Irish bard, Oliver 
Goldsmith ; or to that other inimitable Irish poet, 
the much lamented and dearly loved Thomas 
Moore. If you ask me for the greatest com- 
mander of modern times, I point you to an 
Irishman, the hero of Waterloo, the Iron Duke of 
Wellington. 

There is no sphere in life that has not been 
filled by Irishmen. I am not here to-night to 
flatter the Irish people. I am here to speak 
the truth as I understand it. I am here to do 
justice to an outcast and injured people. And 
I am here to say that I have no sympathy with 
those false pedantic notions so prevalent to-day, 
which look with contempt upon the capacities 
of the Irish race. No Irishman need ever be 
ashamed of his country or of his religion. Let 
every thoughtful Protestant remember that the 
Catholic faith in Ireland has been nourished by 
" the most sacred sentiments of the human heart, 
by the hatred of injustice, and by the devotion to 
one's forefathers ; " and that the Irishman loves 
with equal fervor his terrestrial and his celestial 
country. 

Now, let me invite your attention to what I con- 
ceive to be the grievances to-day of the Irish 
people. 

Nowhere are there any people speaking the Eng- 

20I 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

lish language who have as Httle voice in their own 
government as the Irish. Any attempt to enforce 
such a government in Canada or Austraha would 
make either of those countries a great powder-house 
of insurrection. Our forefathers plunged America 
into the war of the Revolution for one-tenth the 
pretext that to-day arouses all Ireland. It behooves 
every American citizen to hesitate before he con- 
demns the Irish people for disturbing the peace of 
England. Washington unsheathed his sword in no 
holier cause than inspires a Parnell. One hundred 
years ago America appealed to the sympathies 
of the civilized world for less cause than to-day 
invokes the sympathies of civilized men everywhere 
for suffering Ireland. 

1. I want to show you how the taxes are laid in 
Ireland, something that comes as close home to a 
people as any branch of governmental duties. 

As a relic of the days of the conquest, in every 
county local taxes are imposed by a "grand jury." 
These grand juries are appointed by the sheriffs ; 
and the sheriffs, mind you, are appointed by the 
English government. Almost as a necessary con- 
sequence, the Irish grand juries are made up of 
large landed proprietors and their agents ; and the 
tenants, who compose a vast majority of the people, 
have no representation or voice in this body 
which levies the taxes. How unjust and how 
undemocratic ! 

2. These same grand juries name one-half the 

202 



IRISH LAND LEAGUE 

local governing boards in the baronies or sub- 
divisions of a county. The other half of these 
local boards, answering somewhat to our board of 
selectmen, is composed of justices of the peace 
appointed by the English government. What a 
wickedly conceived and cunningly contrived substi- 
tute for the voice of the people ! What a travesty on 
the boasted free institutions of England ! 

3. The Board for the distribution of relief to the 
poor and the sick derives its appointment from, 
and is largely composed of, landed proprietors. 
All clergymen are excused by law, and the English 
government reserves to itself the right to fill the 
entire board, which is often done. 

4. Public education, which in England and 
Scotland is placed in charge of a board elected by 
the people, is in Ireland given to a board ap- 
pointed by the Crown ; and its members hold for 
life, — a scheme for governing a people worthy the 
autocrat of all the Russias. 

5. The few town and city officers that are elected 
in Ireland are chosen by electors whose qualifica- 
tions are much higher than are required of electors in 
voting for members of Parliament. The qualifica- 
tions are so high in voting for local oflficers that the 
management of local affairs is kept in the hands of 
a few wealthy land-holders. Irish cities and towns 
in which Roman Catholics are in a majority, at all 
elections for members of Parliament, have local 
governments composed exclusively of Protestants. 

203 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

No Catholic country maintains to-day such an 
arbitrary and unrepresentative government as that 
under which all Ireland is groaning. Not Catholic 
France, Italy, Austria, or Spain, can boast such an 
infamous scheme to cheat and drown the voice of 
the people. 

6. Let me call your attention to the marked 
difference between the methods employed by the 
British government to govern her own petted Eng- 
land and the despised Green Island of the sea. 
As I have already shown you, the great matter of 
public education which in England and Scotland is 
placed in the hands of a board elected by the 
people is in Ireland managed by a board appointed 
by the English government, whose members hold 
for life. 

By the law of i860, passed by the British Par- 
liament, the landlords in Ireland possess summary 
powers of ejectment far in excess of those possessed 
by the landlords in England. In England they 
have county officers elected by the people, but in 
Ireland such officials are appointed by the English 
government. As a result of this Land League 
agitation, headed by those noble Irish patriots, 
Parnell and Davitt, Mr. Gladstone has promised to 
submit to this present Parliament a bill extending 
the same county organization and privileges to 
Ireland as are enjoyed in England. 

7. It is almost impossible to make an American 
comprehend the impediments which exist in Ire- 

204 



IRISH LAND LEAGUE 

land to the transfer of real estate. There are no 
offices or places where deeds can be recorded. 
All records relative to real estate are kept in the 
office of the attorney. If a man wants to make a 
deed, he must go to some particular attorney, and 
have him prepare an abstract showing how the land 
is situated and encumbered, and the attorney 
draws the deed and keeps it. For these services 
he charges from one hundred to five hundred 
dollars. It has long been mooted to establish the 
American custom of recording deeds in some 
public office ; but John Bull is slow to move, and 
hates most of all to acknowledge that America can 
teach the proud Briton anything. 

8. All wills made in Ireland, where the amount 
involved is more than twenty-five dollars, must 
be filed and recorded in Dublin. If you want 
to find out about any will, you must employ 
some attorney at Dublin, whose charges are extor- 
tionate. This matter of wills is of far more conse- 
quence across the water than in America ; for here 
we limit the power ot any man to tie up his estate 
to the life of some person in being and twenty-five 
years thereafter, while under the English govern- 
ment there is no such limitation, and wills may 
reach down through several generations. Thus 
they have much more occasion in Ireland to 
inquire into the terms of wills than we do. How 
inconvenient it would be if all the people of the 
six New England States and New York were 
205 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

obliged to send to Albany before they could make 
a deed, a mortgage, or a lease ! 

9. As I have just explained, a man may in Ire- 
land encumber his estate with legacies and settle- 
ments extending down through several generations, 
or for long periods of time. A person who has 
not investigated the matter cannot appreciate what 
a burden it becomes to the landed interests of 
Ireland. So many different parties living off the 
industry of the tenant, so many idlers staring every 
purchaser in the face, so many sluggards encum- 
bering every acre of land paralyzes the sale and 
transfer of real estate, and freezes the industrial 
ambition of the people. 

10. The great trouble with the English govern- 
ment is that it was originally created for the benefit 
of the rulers. For four hundred years the great 
mass of the people have been struggling to secure, 
one by one, some of those great and inalienable 
rights which, by " the laws of Nature and of 
Nature's God," belong to all men. 

One of the abominable customs which dates its 
origin back to the mediaeval ages, and which ought 
to wither and die in the light of modem civiliza- 
tion, is the custom prevailing under the English 
government to-day that you cannot attach and sell 
the land of a bloated aristocrat, though he may owe 
a hundred times as much as he is worth. Every 
other man must pay his honest debts except this 
pampered son of luxury and of wild and reckless 
206 



IRISH LAND LEAGUE 

extravagance. England is cursed with that other 
twin reUc of a barbarous age, primogeniture, which 
robs a whole family to make one child rich. Poets 
may write and philosophers may soliloquize on the 
marvellous liberties of the British government, but 
they look mean and contemptible beside the price- 
less freedom of American citizenship. 

II. But the one crying evil of the hour, the 
ever-present and never-to-be-forgotten misfortune 
of Ireland, is landlordism. 

Now, what does landlordism mean? It means 
this, that less than two thousand men own two- 
thirds of all the land in Ireland. On the land 
owned by these two thousand men are living five 
hundred thousand tenants and over three millions 
of people. I can explain this matter no better 
than by quoting the spoken words of one of Eng- 
land's great statesmen, — a man whose broad sym- 
pathies, great learning, and marvellous eloquence 
place him in the front rank of the world's great 
men. On the i6th Oi November last, at Birming- 
ham, England, John Bright spoke as follows : — 

" What the tenants want is this : to insure in some 
way, by some mode, that when a man has his house 
over his head — built by himself, probably, or some pre- 
ceding member of his family may have built it — and 
his little farm around him, he should not incessantly 
be taught that he may any day have notice to quit and 
be turned out of his farm and liome ; and that the rent 
should not be constantly added to, until even going 
207 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

out of his farm is a less evil than remaining in it. He 
wants some security from the constant torture and 
menace of increasing rent which he feels hanging over 
him ; and he wants also that there should be some 
broad and generous and complete system established 
by the government by which land-owners who are will- 
ing to sell, of which there must be many now, — that 
where land-owners are wilHng to sell (and there are 
many at all times), and where tenants are able and 
willing to buy, then, through the instrumentahty of a 
government commission, you may gradually, year by 
year, add to the number of the proprietary farmers in 
Ireland." 

Again he said : — 

" If the English people had been informed, if they 
had been capable within the last two centuries of judg- 
ing fairly of these matters, and if in addition to this 
the government had been merciful and just to Ireland, 
there cannot be a doubt that Ireland would be as 
closely welded at this moment to England as Scotland 
is, and that it would be as difficult to raise the flag of 
insurrection or discontent in Ireland as it would be for 
Prince Charlie again to appear with his flag in Scot- 
land. The Irish farmers are, in the main, industrious 
and honest. There has been no country in Europe, 
no part of the United Kingdom, in which rents have 
been more generally and constantly and fairly paid 
than in Ireland, until the recent troubles. The Irish 
farmer is an economist ; he saves even to penurious- 
ness. The great object of his life is to enable himself 
to give a small portion to his daughters on their mar- 
riage. The Irish people expatriated to the United 
States have sent millions and millions of money to 
208 



IRISH LAND LEAGUE 

Ireland, to help their poor relations to make the 
voyage thither. Therefore I believe, as much as I 
believe anything, that it is possible to frame a measure 
of legislation which will satisfy the great bulk of the 
Irish tenant-farmers." 

To show that this is not an overdrawn picture, 
let me read you a little account of what is meant 
by a just landlord : — 

" Sir Cavendish Foster is one of the few Irish land- 
lords who have no trouble with their tenants. He is a 
clergyman in Essex, and owns land in County Louth, 
Ireland. Not long ago he instructed his agent to 
reduce rents twenty per cent ; but his tenants replied 
with a unanimous refusal to accept the reduction. 
They did not wish for more consideration, — they 
asked for none at all. Being able, they were wiUing, 
to pay their just rent in full. They told the agent to 
inform the landlord that such habitual justice as he 
gave them made it unnecessary for them to use, and 
they were too honest and grateful to abuse, his gener- 
osity. He explains what happened by saying that the 
rents were reduced a the time of the last famine in 
1847, and they have never since been raised. The 
result of a gentle use of the landlord's power is proved 
by two remarkable circumstances. When the late 
landlord died, the tenants spent two thousand dollars 
in putting up a monument to him. The agent — the 
usually hated agent — died. A similar monument was 
put up to him. At a time when landlordism is being 
decried all over Ireland, Sir Cavendish Foster is 
receiving constantly from his tenants declarations 
that if all landlords were like him, the Land League 
would be impossible." 

14 209 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

Such fidelity and such attachment as is pictured 
in the description which I have just read to you 
proves that the Irish people possess some of the 
best and noblest traits of the human heart, — "a 
singularly pure, domestic nature, an affectionate 
and even sunny disposition, and hearts full of 
gratitude and friendship." 

You read much in the papers of the three " F's." 
Let me explain what is meant by the three " F's." 
The first -^stands for fixity of tenure. The tenant 
in Ireland wants the privilege of renting the land 
for a definite term of years at some fixed rent. 
At the present time he is liable to have his rent 
raised or himself evicted at every whim of the 
landlord. Remember that in three years a million 
people were turned out-doors by their relentless 
landlords, to sleep with nothing above them but 
the blue arch of heaven, and nothing beneath 
them but the cold sod. The tenants also want 
that when they are evicted they shall receive 
compensation for any improvements they have 
made, and also compensation for being disturbed, 
— these questions to be determined by a fair 
board of appraisers. If the English government 
has made it impossible for a vast majority of the 
people of Ireland to gain any permanent interest 
in the land on which they live, and compels them 
to occupy for many generations the position of 
simple tenants of the soil, throwing upon them 

2IO 



IRISH LAND LEAGUE 

also the misfortune of bad crops or stagnation in 
business, without any corresponding reduction in 
their rents, — who can blame these poor people 
when they appeal from the avarice of the landlord 
to some fair and impartial tribunal? 

The second F stands for free sales. By this is 
meant that the outgoing tenant wants the privilege 
of selling to the incoming tenant the unexhausted 
improvements which he has made upon the farm. 
Bear in mind that this is secured to the tenant in 
England by a law containing a list of the improve- 
ments for which compensation may be demanded 
by the out-going tenant, and the rates to be al- 
lowed for the same. England, as I have already 
shown you, has one law for the Jew and another 
for the Gentile. 

The third F stands for fair rent, and means a 
protection to the tenant against the arbitrary and 
excessive exactions of the landlord. It contem- 
plates the creation of some board of arbitration to 
decide between the landlord and the tenant when 
they are unable to agree. Every sign of prosper- 
ity of the tenant is now only an incentive to the 
landlord to raise the rent. 

In order to appreciate the importance of these 
three schemes for improving the condition of the 
tenant in Ireland, you must remember that the laws 
of England have made it almost impossible for a 
vast majority of the Irish people ever to own any 
interest in the soil ; they are condemned by cer- 

211 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

tain inexorable laws to live and die, generation 
after generation, as simple tenants of the soil. 
The terms of their leases cover many years, during 
which, for the purpose of protecting and advanc- 
ing their own interests and the interests of their 
landlords, they are obliged to make many perma- 
nent improvements, — build houses, barns, walls, 
ditches, etc., — while in England the landlord 
makes these improvements. Do you wonder then 
that three millions of people, who have spent their 
lives in improving the farms on which they are 
living, demand some protection against the avarice 
of the landlord, some security that they shall not 
be driven in the hour of their misfortune, or in 
that old age which comes alike to the rich and the 
poor, from the land on which they were born, and 
from the homes which they have erected? 

It is only carrying a little further, and I think for 
a better purpose, a principle well recognized every- 
where, that all men hold their property subject to 
its being taken for public use at a fair appraisal. 
You can take my land to build a court-house on, 
upon paying me the appraisal. Why may you not 
compel a greedy landlord to rent his farm at a fair 
appraisal and upon reasonable terms, when poverty 
and starvation stare a whole nation in the face ? 

If you ask me whether these contemplated im- 
provements have ever been tried anywhere else, I 
tell you yes. The Land League of Ireland is only 
attempting to secure for the tenants in Ireland the 

212 



IRISH LAND LEAGUE 

same privileges that have been enjoyed for many 
generations in the happy and prosperous Nether- 
lands. In the laws and customs of India, long 
prior to its domination by the British, you could 
find nearly all the privileges that the Irish tenant 
is begging for to-day. Under the old Roman 
Empire, whose people found their chief pleasure 
in the brutal gladiatorial fights, who worshipped 
false gods, who had never heard the sublime doc- 
trines of the Christian religion, who never dreamed 
of a risen Lord, — among that ancient people it 
was a law that when the land was unproductive 
through the calamities of the season, the rent of 
the land was either suspended or extinguished. 
The Land League of Ireland appeal to their Eng- 
lish rulers, with all their boasted learning and 
civilization, to establish for the unfortunate people 
of Ireland a law which has come down to us from 
pagan Rome, an*, which has had the approval and 
is covered with the hoary frosts of twenty cen- 
turies. This may explain why poverty-stricken 
Ireland is to-day in arms against landlordism, and 
appeals confidently to the humanities of the race 
and the brotherhood of mankind to move the hard 
hearts of her British rulers. 

Another great object sought to be accomplished 
by the Land League is to induce the English gov- 
ernment to lend its aid in reclaiming the waste 
lands of Ireland, estimated to contain over two 
213 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

millions of acres, and then to divide the lands into 
small farms. These lands alone would make forty 
thousand farms. John Bright eloquently says : 
" What is a million of money, what are ten mil- 
lions, what are fifty millions, to this country, to 
pursue to a successful issue a great question like 
this?" He might well have added that hardly a 
year passes in which the English government does 
not spend an equal sum to subjugate some savage 
race, exasperated by the cruel and relentless de- 
mands of British officers and traders, in the wilds 
of Africa, or in the snow-clad heights of central 
Asia. 

England might learn a lesson from America. 
We could have freed three millions of slaves and 
planted them on African soil, and saved a bloody 
fratricidal war and five millions of dollars and one 
million of precious human lives, had we been wise 
enough. The poet has truly sung — 

" Peace hath her victories 
No less renowned than war." 

Another object which the Land League seeks to 
accomplish is to induce the English government to 
lend its credit, as has been done in Prussia and 
Russia, and enable the Irish people to become 
owners of the soil ; to divide up the vast tracts of 
land now for sale, or owned by corporations, — in 
the words of an eloquent Irish orator, " to root the 
people to the soil." No people are so happy, no 
214 



IRISH LAND LEAGUE 

people are so contented, no people are so loyal to 
the government, as where all the people own a few 
acres of God's green earth. Ireland could easily 
be made to support twenty millions of people bet- 
ter than she supports six millions to-day. Ireland 
has less population to the acre than France, Bel- 
gium, Italy, Netherlands, or Switzerland. The 
infernal policy of the English government has in 
the last twenty years reduced the population of 
Ireland nearly three millions, — two millions by 
emigration, and one million by starvation. 

In Ireland, from 1841 to 1861, two hundred 
and seventy thousand houses, representing at least 
two millions of people, were levelled to the ground. 
In one year, in the province of Connaught, 
twenty-six thousand four hundred and ninety 
holders of land were wiped out to please the 
ambition or ta^cC of great landed proprietors. It 
was an Irish poet whose tongue was touched 
with heavenly wisdom, who sang in those sweet, 
sad words, — 

"111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay. 
Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade, — 
A breath can make them as a breath has made ; 
But a bold peasantry, a country's pride, 
When once destroyed, can never be supplied." 

Ireland is cursed in another way and differently 
from any other country of which you may read in 
215 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

history. Nearly one-half of all the land in Ireland 
is owned by men living in other countries. What 
interest have such men in the soil except to suck 
all the life out of it? These three thousand 
absentee landlords own one-half of all the culti- 
vated land of Ireland, and have exhausted and 
allowed in the last five years three hundred and 
ninety-eight thousand acres of land to relapse into 
waste and uncultivated fields. They demanded 
such exorbitant rents that the tenants were obliged 
to abandon the fertile plains of Connaught, and 
move on to the barren and cheerless hills which 
rise toward the Curlew Mountains. When, after 
years of toil, they had reclaimed their wretched 
mountain tracts, and dotted them over with happy 
homes, their landlords doubled the rents, and they 
found themselves again houseless and pensioners 
on the charities of a cold and uncharitable world. 
When these poor people are set adrift in the 
world with nothing left to them but the hopes of 
an immortal heaven, they look thithei to find some 
remedy, some cure, for their overwhelming misfor- 
tunes ; and they find on the pages of the wisest 
political economist of the nineteenth century, in the 
writings of the flower of the British intellect, John 
Stuart Mill, these pregnant sentences : — 

" The land of Ireland — the land of any country — 
belongs to the people of that country. The individ- 
uals called landlords have no right in morality and 
216 



IRISH LAND LEAGUE 

justice to anything but the rent, or compensation for 
its salable value. When the inhabitants of a place 
quit the country en masse because its government will 
not make it a place fit for them to live in, the govern- 
ment is judged and condemned. It is the duty of 
Parliament to reform the land-tenure in Ireland. 
There is no necessity for depriving the landlords of 
one farthing of the pecuniary value of their legal 
rights ; but justice requires that the actual cultivators 
should be enabled to become in Ireland what they will 
become in America, — proprietors of the soil which 
they cultivate. The greatest burthen on land is the 
landlords. Returning nothing to the soil, they con- 
sume its whole produce, minus the potatoes, strictly 
necessary to keep the inhabitants from dying of 
hunger; and when they have any purpose of improve- 
ment, the preparatory step usually consists in not 
leaving even this pittance, but turning out the people 
to beggary, if not to starvation. When landed prop- 
erty has placed itself on this footing, it ceases to be 
defensible, and the time has come for making some 
new arrangement of the matter. When the sacred- 
ness of property is talked of, it should be remembered 
that any such sacredness does not belong in the same 
degree to landed property. No man made his right 
in the land. It is the original inheritance of the whole 
species. Its appropriation is a question of general 
expediency. When private property in land is not 
expedient, it is unjust. It is no hardship to any man 
to be excluded from what others have produced ; they 
were not bound to produce it for his use, and he loses 
nothing by not sharing in what otherwise would not 
have existed at all. But it is some hardship to be 
born into the world and to find all Nature's gifts pre- 
217 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

viously engrossed, and no place left for the new-comer. 
To reconcile people to this, after they have once 
admitted into their minds the idea that any moral 
rights belong to them as human beings, it will always 
be necessary to convince them that the exclusive 
appropriation is good for mankind on the whole, them- 
selves included; but this is what no sane human being 
could be persuaded of, if the relation between the 
land-owner and the cultivator were the same every- 
where as it has been in Ireland." 



The eloquent historian Froude, with all his 
English prejudices, says : " The land in any coun- 
try is really the property of the nation which 
occupies it." 

Do you wonder, then, that these people begin to 
agitate these great questions ; that they have organ- 
ized the Land League of Ireland to endeavor to 
secure in a peaceful way those rights and privileges 
which are the birthright of every human being, 
and without which life is not worth living? The 
American patriots a hundred years ago, in the city 
of Philadelphia, proclaimed to all the world and 
to all times these grand principles : " We hold 
these truths to be self-evident, — that all men are 
created equal ; that they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that 
among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness ; that to secure these rights governments 
are instituted among men, deriving their just 
powers from the consent of the governed; that 
218 



IRISH LAND LEAGUE 

whenever any form of government becomes destruc- 
tive of these ends, it is the right of the people to 
alter or to abolish it." The Irish patriot of to-day 
would stand approved in history through all time 
if he should plant the flag of liberty on every green 
hill of the Emerald Isle, and sound the bugle 
blasts of freedom. You must remember that it 
has only been by agitation and turmoil that the 
Irish people have ever been able to secure any 
concessions, or any new privileges, from the Eng- 
lish government. The most brilliant living English 
essayist, William Lecky, writing on this subject 
says : " Generation after generation, by a slow, 
steady, and fatal process, the Irish nation has been 
educated into disloyalty ; taught to look with dis- 
trust upon constitutional means of obtaining its 
ends, and accustomed to regard outrage and vio- 
lence as the invariable preludes to concession." 

Catholic emancipation, the concession of equal 
rights to Catholics and Protestants, was only 
granted by the king of England after the Duke of 
Wellington, the commander of His Majesty's 
forces, had told the king that he must choose 
between emancipation and insurrection. The wild 
and futile efforts of the Fenians, Mr. Gladstone has 
pubhcly stated, made the disestablishment of the 
Irish Church a political necessity. 

I have not time to-night to go into that other 
question, which for three-quarters of a century has 
219 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

been uppermost in the minds of the Irish people, 
and whose advocates are known to-day as home- 
rulers. It would be useless for me to attempt to 
plead a cause which has had for its advocates a 
Curran, a Grattan, and an O'Connell, — names 
born never to die. 

The series of acts which finally culminated in 
the abolition of the Irish parliament, and in the 
consolidation of Ireland and England under one 
parliament, constitutes the blackest page in the 
history of the last century. All the blood of all 
the landlords in Ireland cannot atone for that 
crime which smells to heaven. A modern English 
writer has justly said : " In the case of Ireland, as 
truly as in the case of Poland, a national consti- 
tution was destroyed by a foreign power contrary 
to the wishes of the people. In the one case, the 
deed was a crime of violence ; in the other, it was 
a crime of treachery and corruption. In both 
cases a legacy of enduring bitterness was the 
result. Whatever may be thought of the abstract 
merits of the arrangement, the union, as it was 
carried, was a crime of the deepest turpitude, — a 
crime which, by imposing with every circumstance 
of infamy a new form of government on a reluctant 
and protesting nation, has vitiated the whole course 
of Irish opinion." 

William Gladstone, the premier of England, 
following in the footsteps of most English states- 
men, proposes, as the first solution of the problem, 
220 



IRISH LAND LEAGUE 

the adoption of the usual coercive legislation, — a 
very instructive but lamentable fact, — and vainly 
hopes by this means to still the troubled waters. 
The legislation of the British parliament for Ire- 
land has ever bristled with dragons' teeth. It has 
passed one coercion act, on an average, nearly 
every year since the union was fraudulently estab- 
lished. These coercion laws have always fallen 
short of their purpose. All the laws and all the 
soldiers of the English government can never 
destroy or exterminate the undaunted spirits of 
the Irish people. The poet has truly said, — 

" Freedom's battle once begun, 
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son. 
Though baffled oft, is ever won." 

We can already begin to see the dawn of a 
better day. By agitation, by public meetings, by 
a calm, peaceful, and persistent presentation of her 
claims, Ireland will, I believe, under the guidance 
of a kind Providence, soon pass through the Red 
Sea of her afflictions into the Promised Land of 
peasant proprietary, and of consequent prosperity 
and contentment. 

A commission appointed by the English parlia- 
ment to investigate the condition of Ireland has 
recently reported in favor of two fundamental 
principles, which have never been recognized in 
the discussion of the Irish question, and which will 
call forth a horrified protest from the land-holding 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

class ; namely, that the cultivator has a property in 
the soil he tills, and that he has a right to get a 
living, and something more than a living, from the 
land. The commission condemns that system 
which robs the tenant of everything except what is 
necessary for a bare subsistence ; which keeps half 
a nation in abject poverty, and crowds and stifles 
the brute creation and human souls in one narrow 
hovel. Nearly three-quarters of all the people in 
Ireland are living to-day in mud houses, sharing 
their pitiable shelter with their best friend, the 
brute animal. 

The commission therefore recommends that the 
tenant should be protected against forfeiture of the 
interest in his holding, — either by arbitrary eject- 
ment, or by raising his rent at the discretion of 
the landlord, — and, instead of a tenancy from 
year to year, the commissioners would create a 
statutory tenure defeasible only by decree of the 
land court for a breach of specified conditions. 
This would secure that fixity of possession which 
is the prime condition of successful farming and 
contentment of mind. 

We are approaching the most critical period in 
the history of the Land League agitation. This is 
no time to haul down the colors or suspend the 
agitation. Let no man be discouraged because 
the foremost champion of the Land League agita- 
tion, Michael Davitt, pines in a British jail. Every 
great cause must have some martyr, and future 

222 



IRISH LAND LEAGUE 

generations will cherish the memory of Ireland's 
martyred saints. Now is the time for the sons and 
friends of Ireland to marshal their forces for the 
final charge upon the embattled hosts of land- 
lordism, and of English ignorance, cruelty, and 
injustice. In this Land League agitation, in this 
grand appeal to the public opinion of the world and 
to the parliament of mankind, there is no need of 
soldiers or the dreadful calamities of civil war. 
Instead of muskets, I would put into the hands of 
every member of the Land League organization a 
banner, and on that banner should be blazoned the 
words of the immortal Grattan : " I wish for 
nothing but to breathe in this our island, in com- 
mon with my fellow- subjects, the air of liberty. I 
have no ambition, unless it be to break your chains 
and contemplate your glory. I will never be satis- 
fied so long as the meanest cottager in Ireland has 
a link of the British chain clanking to his rags." 

No true Irishman ever despairs of his country. 
When Henry Grattan, the foremost representative 
of the Irish people and one of the noblest repre- 
sentatives of the human race, spoke for the last 
time in the Irish parliament, at the old Parliament 
House in Dublin he proclaimed to the world these 
lofty sentiments, which may well serve as a rallying 
cry for the unconquered and unconquerable spirits 
of all the true sons of Ireland, and which will go 
resounding through the cycle of the ages. Listen 
to his memorable words : — 
223 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

" The constitution of Irelapd may for a time be 
lost, but the character of the people cannot be lost. 
The ministers of the Crown may perhaps at length 
find out that it is not so easy to put down forever an 
ancient and respectable nation by abilities however 
great, or by corruption however irresistible. Liberty 
will repair her golden beams, and, with redoubled 
heat, animate the country. The cry of loyalty will 
not long continue against the principles of liberty. 
Loyalty is a noble, a judicious, and a capacious princi- 
ple : but in these countries loyalty distinct from liberty 
is corruption, not loyalty. Yet I do not give up my 
country. I see her in a swoon ; but she is not dead. 
Though in her tomb she lies helpless and motionless, 
still there is on her lips a spirit of life and on her 
cheek a glow of beauty. 

"' Thou art not conquered. Beauty's ensign yet 
Is crimson on thy lips and on thy cheeks. 
And Death's pale flag is not advanced there.' " 

And closing, he said : " While a plank of the 
vessel stands together I will not leave her. Let 
the courtier present his flimsy sail, and carry the 
light bark of his faith with every new breath of 
wind ; I will remain anchored here, with fidelity 
to the fortunes of my country, faithful to her 
freedom, faithful to her fall." 



224 



A TRIBUTE TO LINCOLN 

speech delivered at a Methodist Church. 

Friends, — It is fitting that we should assemble 
to-night in this temple of the living God to com- 
memorate the heroic deeds of the brave and fallen 
soldiers of the Union. For six thousand years no 
government has been raised up by human hands 
which has done so much to advance the cause of 
the Christian religion as this free government of 
America. In all the history of man from the time 
of his inception upon the globe down to the pres- 
ent hour, you fail to find any government that so 
truly represents the grand principle of our religion 
— the equality of man to man — as does the 
American Republic. It knows no distinction of 
race or color, rank or birth. 

This great doctrine first burst upon a startled 
world nineteen centuries ago, when the Saviour of 
mankind proclaimed upon the hills of Judea to the 
Jews, who thought themselves the chosen sons of 
Heaven, that in the sight of Almighty God one 
man is as good as another. That magnificent idea 
grew slowly through the ages, and only reached its 
perfect fruit when in 1862, amid the throes of a 
gigantic rebellion, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed 
15 225 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

that thereafter and forever there should be no dis- 
tinction known in law in America between one 
man and another. Our forefathers, fleeing from 
the despotism of the Old World, sought to found 
upon the wild and inhospitable shores of America 
a nation where every man might worship God 
according to the dictates of his own conscience, 
and where he might enjoy under the least possible 
restraints the great sum of human existence, " life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This na- 
tion, born amid tears and sufferings, has for three 
hundred years been the vanguard nation in the 
march of civilization, and is now the proud hope 
of liberty-loving men in every quarter of the civil- 
ized world. And, to-day, it is the only govern- 
ment in the wide world where the mass of mankind 
are not toiling to support in a pernicious and 
unmerited luxuriance a favored few. 

Look at the two great rival nations. In Eng- 
land, with all its boasted progress and develop- 
ment, all men are taxed to support a church at 
whose altar they may never worship, and to main- 
tain a clergy oftentimes indolent and unworthy. 
Besides, they are taxed millions on millions to sup- 
port a royalty and an aristocracy whose only claim 
is the accident of birth. The toiling millions are 
thus robbed every year of countless hours which 
they might otherwise spend in ministering to the 
development and happiness of themselves, and of 
those near and dear to them. 
226 



A TRIBUTE TO LINCOLN 

Germany, of which we hear so much in these 
days, on account of her struggles with the Roman 
Church, is only just breaking from the shackles 
which were welded in the Middle Ages. Her 
government is following in the onward march of 
civilization two hundred years behind America. 
Within the past year an otherwise respectable 
clergyman has been sent to jail in Germany for 
thirty days because he said that in his opinion the 
Bible contains some errors. The free press of 
Germany is crushed under the iron heel of a re- 
lentless government. King WiUiam wars not so 
much against the Roman Church as against every- 
thing that threatens the overthrow of his one-man 
despotism ; and the Pope at Rome is, wittingly or 
unwittingly, fighting the battles of liberty. 

The enemies of the liberty of conscience and of 
the rights of human nature all round the inhabited 
globe hoped with satanic jealousy for the over- 
throw of the American Union, — the last, best 
hope of mankind. To whom are we indebted 
for the preservation of the Union except to the 
Union soldiers? And no person owes them a 
deeper debt of gratitude than the American Chris- 
tian. While we have met here to-night to cele- 
brate the brave deeds of the fallen soldiers of the 
Union, by whose heroic struggles we are enabled 
to transmit to coming generations the priceless 
heritage of American liberty, we have met in no 
spirit of animosity toward any section of our com- 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

mon country. Inspired by that same spirit of 
charity and forgiveness by which we hope finally 
to secure an entrance into the mansions of the 
blessed, we are here, ready to rejoice with every 
man and woman who call themselves Americans, 
over the grandest triumph that has been won in 
nineteen centuries for the cause of religion and 
justice. 



228 



HORACE GREELEY 

Speech in Memory of the Great Journalist. 

Mr. President, — 

It is more appropriate on this festive occasion 
that those men should fill the happy hours of this 
gathering who had been long in sympathy with 
the political views of the lamented statesman in 
honor of whose memory we have assembled 
to-night. For it was only recently that I found 
myself acting in consort and fighting under the 
leadership of the great man whose transcendent 
virtues will live as long as time shall last. 

But now that I am up, I have one sentiment to 
offer, and then I have done. It is that, through 
the fifty years of bitter political controversy and 
through all the varying tides of party through 
which he passed, our lamented friend, .whatever 
else may have been said against him, ever bore the 
name of an honest man. And all who read his 
life in the years to come, differing with him though 
they may, will find stamped upon his every act, 
as clear as the sun at midday, those heavenly 
virtues, purity of purpose and kindness of heart. 
Not one dollar of di^onest money, obtained either 
in private life or in public station, ever soiled his 
229 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

hands. He could say better than any other man 
that ever lived upon the American soil, in the lan- 
guage of Wolsey, " Let all the ends thou aim'st at 
be thy Country's, thy God's, and Truth's." 

There was one thing in the life of Horace 
Greeley which interested me more than anything 
that has transpired in these many years, — the last 
great act of his life. He went from city to city, 
from State to State, from ocean to ocean, pro- 
claiming the glad news of reform in the adminis- 
tration of public affairs ; and from the days of 
Patrick Henry down to the present hour, no man 
ever walked upon the American rostrum who 
excelled our lamented friend in the matchless 
eloquence, in the nobility of the sentiments pro- 
claimed, and in the variety of topics touched upon 
in those prophetic addresses. It seemed like the 
singing of the dying swan, like the expiring effort 
of a great and noble genius. Through all those 
addresses ran a sentiment so pure, so noble, it 
seemed born of something better than earth. 

In my judgment, any man who steadily toils 
and sacrifices to make men better and purer is in 
the highest and best sense a follower of Him who 
went about doing good. 

Peace be to the memory of Horace Greeley ! 



230 



IN MEMORY OF E. K. FOSTER 

Mr. President, — 

It is with feelings of hesitancy that I, one of the 
younger members of this Bar, rise to address this 
meeting ; but I should be false to every feeling of 
my heart if I did not pay my tribute of respect to 
the memory of our departed friend and member, 
E. K. Foster. 

His gentle demeanor and unfailing kindness, 
especially towards the younger members of this 
Bar, have won from them all their undying love. 
No man ever extended so kind a greeting to a 
young man just entering upon the arduous struggles 
of a professional life ; and in his death the younger 
members of this Bar have lost a friend indeed, the 
Bar of New Haven County one of its brightest 
jewels, and the commonwealth of Connecticut one 
of her noblest citizens. 

Peace be to his ashes, and sweet be his memory ! 



231 



SPEECH 

Delivered at Town Hall, October, \S6%, introducing 
JAMES F. BABCOCK. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

I REiTJRN to you my sincere thanks for the honor 
which you have done me to-night in appointing 
me the presiding officer of this meeting. 

I am proud to be with you to-night ; I am 
proud to belong to the great national Democratic 
party, — that party which ever carries the flag and 
keeps step to the music of the Union. 

When Pericles paused upon the opening thresh- 
old of eternity, and in his dying moment reviewed 
the events of his great life, he consoled his parting 
spirit and rested the chief glory of his reign upon 
the fact that he had never caused a citizen of 
Athens to shed a tear. The Democratic party 
was cradled at the commencement of this govern- 
ment, and in its subsequent growth it has kept 
pace with the rise and progress of the great 
American republic ; and in the elevation of the 
Democratic party to power once more we look for 
the restoration of peace and harmony to this dis- 
232 



INTRODUCING JAMES F. BABCOCK 

tracted land, — for the return of those halcyon 
days when once again all the people of this coun- 
try, North and South, East and West, shall rejoice 
in one another's successes, striving to alleviate one 
another's woes, and struggling together to bear 
upward and onward the emblem of freedom, the 
standard of the Union. 

During the past three years not a hostile arm 
has been raised from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
from the Lakes to the Rio Grande ; not a rebel- 
lious son of the great republic has been found any- 
where. And why, during these three years, have 
we not had peace, — benign, heaven-bom peace ; 
that peace for which the people have labored ; 
that peace for which our soldiers fought and died, 
— peace, which should reunite the people of thirty- 
seven States in the bonds of love and friendship, — 
peace with its accompanying blessings, prosperity 
and plenty? Ah, I will tell you. Because the 
men in Washington preferred war to peace ; be- 
cause they were determined to keep one-half of 
this country under military rule : yes, to do just 
what Jefferson Davis had failed to do, — to blot 
out ten States from this Union. And why? For 
fear that they might lose their offices ; for fear that 
their party might soon be in a minority. 

" God grant swift safety to the land I 
God haste the peace-returning mom, 
When our great Mother yet shall stand 
Triumphant with her second born I " 

233 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

There is present with us to-night a distinguished 
citizen of this State, — a man who in the dark 
days through which we have passed, when the 
radical leaders in Congress took up the secession 
doctrine ; when they declared that ten States had 
seceded from the Union and were no longer 
members of the great Confederacy; when Con- 
gress passed laws to prevent the Supreme Court 
from deciding upon the constitutionality of the 
acts of Congress ; when, finally, these radicals 
attempted to impeach the lawful President of these 
United States, and to thrust him from his high 
position and put in his place a swearing brag- 
gart, Ben Wade of Ohio ; when they attempted 
this consummate act of infamy, this stain and 
disgrace on the American nation, because, for- 
sooth, they could not bend Andrew Johnson to 
their wicked purposes, — then it was that our 
fellow-citizen said to his poUtical associates, " I 
can go with you no longer. My voice and my 
vote are for the Union." 

I have the pleasure of introducing to you 
to-night Hon. James F. Babcock, of New Haven. 



234 



REMARKS 

Made at the Fireynan's Dinner, Meriden, 
May 1 8, 1869. 

Mr, Mayor and Gentlemen : 

It is with extreme reluctance that I rise this 
day to respond to the sentiment of " His honor 
the Mayor." But although I am a young man, 
and have been only for a year or two a resident 
of this city, I take a deep interest in everything 
that concerns this young and rising municipality. 

As a citizen of this city, I never felt prouder of 
Meriden than I did to-day, when I witnessed the 
parade of our fire department. I venture to say 
that there is not in this State a better disciplined, 
a more efficient fire department than that of the 
city of Meriden. Great praise is certainly due to 
the officers and members of the fire department 
for its successful organization ; and some praise is 
certainly due to those members of the Common 
Council who have given to this subject no little 
thought and consideration. 

We meet to-day, gentlemen, to dedicate a 
building, erected by the Common Council of this 
city, for the convenience of the different depart- 
235 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

ments of the city government. I trust this build- 
ing will long stand, a monument of the good sense 
and judgment of the Common Council of 1868-69. 
Not only in the erection of this building, but on 
every hand, — in improved streets, in new side- 
walks, in the erection of street-lamps, in the 
organization of a police and fire department, in 
the building of public water-works, — in these, 
and in a hundred different ways, have the Common 
Council of this city shown their faithfulness and 
devotion to the public interests ; and the time will 
soon come when all the people of this city will be 
ready to give to these gentlemen — the mayor, the 
aldermen, and the Common Councilmen — the 
praise and the thanks to which they are justly 
entitled. And I can only express the wish that 
that same good feeling and that same earnest 
devotion to the public interests which has thus far 
since the organization of the city united men of all 
parties, and without which this city government 
would never have been organized, and without 
which it would not have been so honestly, faith- 
fully, and successfully managed as it has been for 
the past two years, — I say I can only express the 
wish that that same good feeling and that same 
earnest devotion to the public interests may still 
continue to unite men of all parties and to rule in 
the councils of our city. 



236 



A TRIBUTE TO TOLLAND 

From the ^^ Stafford Press, ^^ Dec. 6, 1894. 

A UNION gathering of the voters of all political 
parties of the town of Tolland was held at the town 
hall, Monday evening, November 26, by invitation 
of the Hon. Edward E. Fuller, Senator-elect, and 
Representatives-elect William Sumner and Ratcliffe 
Hicks. Every voter in the town was asked to par- 
ticipate in the festivities of the occasion; and about 
two hundred sat down to the tables, which were gen- 
erously supplied. The meeting was called to order 
by Frank T. Newcomb, one of the town committee, 
and E. S. Agard was chosen chairman. After supper, 
the chairman introduced the Hon. Edward E. Fuller, 
Senator-elect, who responded in a very excellent 
speech. Representative-elect Sumner was next in- 
troduced. He made some pleasing and well-appre- 
ciated remarks ; and then his colleague, Mr. Hicks, 
was called on, and spoke as follows : — 

Fellow-Citizens : 

It is with feelings of pleasure, tinged with some 
little sorrow, that I am here to-night to attend 
this festive gathering of the voters of the town 
of Tolland. 

It is a pleasure to me to come back to the place 
where I was bornj where I spent the happiest 
237 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

twenty years of my life ; where my ancestors have 
lived for one hundred and fifty years and more ; 
where are buried my nearest and dearest of kith 
and kin; and where, in the good order of 
Providence, I expect to be finally laid away at 
rest. 

If there is any spot in this wide, wide world that 
I feel I can call, and that I have a right to call, my 
home, it is this little town of Tolland, nestled up 
here among the rock-ribbed hills of Tolland 
County. But, as I have already said, it is with 
some feelings of sorrow that I always come back 
to Tolland ; for I miss the famihar faces and the 
kindly greetings of many noble men and women 
whose lives are a part of the history of this grand 
old town, and who have passed on to their final 
reward. In thinking of them I am reminded of 
those beautiful lines of one of New England's 
sweetest poets : — 

" Dear souls, who left us lonely here, 

Bound on their last, long voyage, to whom 
We, day by day, are drawing near 
Where every bark has sailing room." 

It may possibly be true, my friends, that I am 
open to the criticism that I am not always with 
you in the body ; but it is true that I am always 
with you in the spirit. However far I may have 
wandered from my ancestral home in my travels 
round this broad earth, — whether in the crowded 
238 



A TRIBUTE TO TOLLAND 

cities of the Old World, London, Paris, or Rome, 
or among the snow-capped mountains of the 
Alps, — wherever I may have happened to be, 
there has hardly been a day of my life that my 
thoughts have not come back to beautiful Tolland, 
and to the scenes through which I have passed 
here, and to the dear friends I had left behind. 

If by any act or word of mine, either in public 
or in private life, I have ever contributed in the 
least towards the prosperity, the stability, the repu- 
tation, and the fair fame of the town of Tolland, 
my highest ambition is satisfied. As for what I 
am willing to do in the future, in all the things 
that may tend to promote the welfare of this town 
and of its inhabitants, I must let the past speak 
and make for me my pledges. For all the kind- 
nesses and favors that you have extended to me 
in the days and years that are gone, I return to 
you, one and all, my most sincere thanks. 

And now, in bidding you all a very good night, 
I pray that Heaven will shower upon you, and 
upon all the homes in goodly Tolland, its sweetest 
and its choicest blessings, — health, happiness, and 
prosperity. 



239 



SPEECH 

Delivered at Meriden, March 25, 1871, opening the 
Connecticut Ca?npaign. 

Fellow-Citizens : 

I SINCERELY thank you for the honor you have 
done me, by appointing me the presiding officer of 
this meeting. The question this spring, my friends, 
is not who shall be the next governor of Con- 
necticut, but how great shall be his majority. The 
people of this State have already elected in their 
hearts as their next governor, the Hon. James E. 
English, and the only question to be decided on 
the first Monday in April is how large shall be his 
majority; and hundreds of Republicans in this 
State are saying that James E. English is good 
enough Governor for them, and that they have no 
desire, and much more no expectation, of seeing 
him defeated. 

A most bitter feud has sprung up in the ranks 
of the Republican party, and Ulysses S. Grant is 
surely and steadily tolling the death-knell of his 
party. He has descended from his proper posi- 
tion as President of the United States, and lobbied 
with Congressmen to disgrace and degrade some 
240 



CONNECTICUT CAMPAIGN 

of the oldest, most spotless, and faithful members 
of the Republican party. He has secured the 
removal of Charles Sumner from the chairmanship 
of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, — a place 
which he has held for twelve years with great credit 
to his country, — and has secured the appointment 
in his place of the most corrupt politician in 
America, Simon Cameron, who, the " Springfield 
Republican " says, twice bought his election to the 
United States Senate, and whom Abraham Lincoln 
removed from his Cabinet for corruption in office. 
General Grant has also lost the support of the 
whole German element of the West by his refusal 
even to see Carl Schurz, the eloquent and gifted 
Senator from Missouri, when he called at the White 
House upon official business. And all this, gentle- 
men, because these men would not bow the knee 
to Ulysses Grant, and vote for the annexation of 
San Domingo. I hope that the people of this 
Congressional District will send to the next Con- 
gress a gentleman who, caring nothing for Presi- 
dential frowns, will have the courage to speak, as 
Stephen W. Kellogg has not, the true sentiment of 
a vast majority of the people of this district in oppo- 
sition to that infamous scheme, urged by a White 
House lobby, for the annexation of the remote and 
worthless island of San Domingo, whose inhabitants 
are in no way fitted for a successful and happy 
union with the people of the American republic. 
To annex it would be a worthless expenditure of 
i6 241 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

the people's money, and dangerous to the per- 
petuity of the institutions of our common country. 
The people of New Hampshire on Tuesday last 
proclaimed in thunder notes their disapproval of 
the annexation of San Domingo. It only remains 
for Connecticut to imitate the glorious example of 
New Hampshire, by electing as Governor, by three 
thousand majority, that honored gentleman, James 
E. English, and by sending to Congress four true 
Democrats. 



242 



SPEECH 

At the Meeting of the Committee on Humane 
Institutions. 

As briefly stated in Tuesday's "Republican," 
the Committee on Humane Institutions met in the 
afternoon at two o'clock, in room No. i6. Insur- 
ance Building, Hartford, to take action regarding 
the petition for an investigation into the affairs of 
the State Reform School. The full committee 
were present, Senator Charles W. Yale, of the Sixth 
district, being in the chair. Ratcliffe Hicks, Esq., 
appeared for the petitioners, and addressed the 
committee. 

Mr. Hicks began by calling the attention of the 
committee to many changes that ought to be made 
in the laws relating to the Reform School, and 
pointed out the great superiority of the laws of 
Massachusetts relative to such institutions over our 
own laws ; among others, that the office of super- 
intendent and treasurer should be separated, and 
not held as at present by the same person ; the 
law should be so changed that the teachers and all 
officers should be alone appointed and removed 
by the board of trustees. In support of these 
243 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

propositions, Mr. Hicks claimed that these powers 
vested in one man clothed him with too much 
authority, deprived under officers of their inde- 
pendence, and made them fearful of asserting their 
rights. 

After dwelling at length on these points, Mr. 
Hicks took up the question of contracts, and 
claimed that these should be put in writing, as 
otherwise the State might suffer great loss by the 
death, removal, or resignation of the superinten- 
dent or other officer. A detailed report of the 
expenses and receipts should be made, so that 
each item would explain itself. The reports should 
state in separate items the amount of salary paid 
each officer, — something never done here, al- 
though it has been the custom in other States. 
The tax-payers have a right to know how much 
their public officers are paid. 

The attention of the committee was then directed 
to the report of the superintendent for the past 
year, and Mr. Hicks claimed that there were many 
items of expenses which had for some reason been 
omitted from the report. There were ^1,200 for 
flour, ^600 for cattle purchased, and $2,200 for the 
superintendent's salary. Mr. Hicks next dwelt 
upon the fact that the superintendent is the best- 
paid officer in the State of Connecticut, as, accord- 
ing to the best information, his salary is $3,000 
per year, with board and house furnished by the 
State ; also servants, horses, and carriages, — which 
244 



HUMANE INSTITUTIONS 

altogether make his salary as good as ^6,000 a year. 
If economy was to be practised at the State Reform 
School, here was the place to commence, instead 
of bragging of the fact that the superintendent 
economized by cutting down to $500 a year the 
salary of the poor watchman, who watched three 
hundred and sixty-five nights of the year around the 
institution. Why, said Mr. Hicks, the judges of 
the Supreme Court of the State, who require many 
years of practice to fill honorably their places, get 
only ^4,000 a year, and pay their own board, fur- 
nish their own houses, and pay their travelling 
bills. 

The next point reached was the internal man- 
agement of the institution, and Mr. Hicks said he 
was prepared to prove that the boys had been 
oftentimes most severely and cruelly punished. 
In some instances the blood was drawn from their 
heads, and others had scars which they would take 
to the grave. This system of punishment was 
behind the age ; much more could be accom- 
plished by kind treatment, and by stimulating the 
boys with offers of extra play, rewards, and other 
inducements, than by such harsh discipline. It 
was a matter of record that Dr. Hatch, who never 
feared the most stubborn boy, succeeded better by 
his genial and pleasant ways than if he resorted 
to the system of cruelties, which were wholly un- 
known until his successor was appointed. During 
the doctor's administration the rawhide and the 
245 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

hickory stick were seldom called into use, and the 
revolver and handcuffs never. 

Mr. Hicks concluded by urging the committee 
to see that no ofificer who might be called on to 
testify, should suffer because he was a willing or 
unwilling witness in this investigation. If an offi- 
cer came before this committee to testify, and he 
was a faithful man, anxious only to tell the truth 
and do justice to the State, it would be an outrage 
if his superior officer could injure him in his posi- 
tion. He (Mr. Hicks) believed the committee 
would protect the witnesses in this respect, in 
order that the whole truth might be known, and 
that the people of the State might know posi- 
tively how the affairs of the Reform School are 
conducted. 



246 



SPEECH TO THE REFORM SCHOOL 
COMMITTEE 

Gentlemen of the Committee: 

In 1854, in the administration of Hon. Thomas 
H. Seymour, the Legislature of this State founded 
an institution where our wayward boys might be 
cared for. For twenty years it went along, the 
pride and admiration of all, under the successful 
working of men like Little, Chamberlain, and 
others, whom my friend Piatt has seen fit to tra- 
duce ; and here I say, it ill becomes Piatt to say 
anything against my friend, the editor of the 
*' Meriden Republican," a man the influence of 
whose paper has always been cheerfully given to 
every good cause, as Piatt very well knows. 

But Graham is nothing, Little is nothing, Piatt 
is nothing, neither am I anything, compared with 
the welfare of the boys in this institution. I have 
said, gentlemen, for twenty years, that the Reform 
School was a model ; yet in two short years its 
usefulness was destroyed. Piatt says it was caused 
by the disaffection of Little and Chamberlain, and 
that the Legislature last year settled the matter by 
appointing additional trustees. Let us see. 
247 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

The investigating committee reported that had 
the trustees of that year attended to their business, 
a better state of things would have existed. They 
said Ingham was totally unfit for the place, was no 
disciplinarian, and had a bad temper. Then my 
friend Mr. Cocks, who had been around during 
the whole investigation, besought the committee 
not to disgrace the trustees. Senator Briggs, the 
chairman of the committee, rose in his place in 
the Senate, and said that every one of the trustees 
and Ingham should be turned out of ofifice. 

This is how it ended, if my friend Piatt wants to 
know. Ingham pleaded hard with them to give 
him a chance. He got it. Old officers who had 
grown gray in the service were turned out, and 
Ingham was left to select his own officers. Then 
he was to have peace and harmony. But these 
officers are swearing against him, and he is de- 
nouncing them as conspirators. This is the order 
he brought out of chaos. Gentlemen, it is said 
that we are here persecuting Mr. Ingham, which is 
false. We are here believing we owe something to 
the State, that it may not continue to be disgraced 
by such atrocities as have been recounted in your 
presence. 

I think, gentlemen, that I voice the sentiment 
of the people of this State, when I say that Edward 
Ingham has no mortgage on the State. The State 
owes him nothing. Ingham is disqualified by his 
physical nature from superintending this institu- 
248 



REFORM SCHOOL COMMITTEE 

tion; he stands before you a monument to dys- 
pepsia, — fretty and crabbed. He is not to blame. 
He is as God made him. Yet none of you, gen- 
tlemen, would give him charge of your factory; 
you would not put him over your own boys ; and 
surely you will not keep him in charge of these 
three hundred friendless boys. A bigger lie, a 
falser claim, a more monstrous proposition than 
that a conspiracy existed, was never fabricated to 
trump up the defence. He has discharged forty- 
two officers, and he would have us believe that all 
these people are wrong, conspiring against him, 
while he is all affable and pleasant. Look, gentle- 
men, at the treatment of these boys. Who wants 
his son, who wants his dog even, treated as has 
been testified to here ? You give your cattle some 
bedding and a warm place to sleep. Now, gen- 
tlemen, it is better that these boys should be 
allowed to wander over and under the hills, than 
subjected to the inhuman barbarities sworn to here. 
And yet Mr. Piatt finds the convenient way of 
charging all the trouble at the school to my friend 
Graham and the old officers of the school. 

I would like to say more if I had the time ; but 
being limited, I will now close. 



249 



SPEECH 

Delivered in Judge IVa/do's Afewory. 

The entire bar of Hartford County met Monday, 
and suitable resolutions on the death of Judge Waldo 
were offered by Hon. Henry C. Robinson. Some un- 
equalled tributes to his memory were offered by Gov- 
ernor Hubbard, Senator Eaton, Ratcliffe Hicks, Judge 
Calhoun, Messrs. Mahlon, R. West, William R, 
Cone and Charles Perkins, Mr. Hicks's remarks, 
which were terse, fitting, and eloquent, were as 
follows : — 

We meet to commemorate the death of a good 
man. I do not believe in unreasonable and indis- 
criminate eulogy ; I will not bestow unmerited 
praise upon the dead to please the living. 

I have known Judge Waldo ever since I knew 
anybody. He was my preceptor ; and I treasure, 
as one of the legacies of my earthly pilgrimage, 
the acquaintance and friendship of that good man. 
Greater lawyers have practised at the bar, and 
more learned judges have adorned the bench of 
this State; but in some things Loren P. Waldo 
was the peer of any man that I ever knew. He 
was an honorable lawyer and an honest judge. 
In one branch of the law he had, perhaps, no 
250 



JUDGE WALDO'S MEMORY 

superior in the State in the construction of our 
statutes. He was a born gentleman. He was a 
man of kind and gentle sympathies. He ever had 
a pleasant and courteous bearing toward all men, 
and especially in his intercourse with the younger 
members of the bar. He dies at the close of a 
long, eventful, and honorable life, with his honors 
thick upon him. He leaves, as a heritage to his 
family, kindred, and friends, that best of all worldly 
things, reaching from earth to heaven, — an unsul- 
hed reputation and an untarnished name. We 
shall all miss his wise counsel, we shall long mourn 
his death, and we shall always respect his memory. 
Peace be to his ashes ! 



251 



CORRESPONDENCE 



THE CITY OF MERIDEN 

An editorial in the ^' Me ride n Recorder,'' 
July 3, 1867. 

MERIDEN is a city ! Thanks be to the united 
and harmonious action of her citizens. 
To-day this community occupies a prouder posi- 
tion than was ever vouchsafed to it before. To- 
day Meriden takes her place among the sister 
cities of this ancient Commonwealth, and enters 
into a noble rivalry with them in all that adorns 
and makes precious the advancing civilization of 
the age. 

What has been done, however, is but the creep- 
ing of the mewling infant. There are manly and 
vigorous steps yet to be taken, which will demand 
the best energies and the noblest impulses of her 
sons and daughters. There is work to be done ; 
there are sacrifices to be made ; there is tiresome 
and perplexing planning to be performed, — all 
these for the common weal and the common good 
of us all. As we do these things so will be meted 
unto us prosperity and renown, the sure rewards of 
high-born principles, an exalted conduct, and a 
never-tiring activity. 

Something needs to be done to make clean the 
streets; to remove all nauseous and unhealthy 
255 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

substances ; to lay sidewalks ; to erect street 
lamps ; to introduce water ; to establish a fire 
department; to preserve order; to maintain a 
proper observance of the Sabbath ; to build neat 
and commodious public buildings ; to clear out the 
manufacturing from the only public building 
the town can boast, as the Saviour drove out 
the money-changers from the temple ; and to do 
many other things without which this village must 
forever wallow like a duck in its own mire. These 
things cannot be done in a moment ; it will take 
years to accomplish them all. Yet now is the time 
to lay, deep and broad, the foundations of this 
rising community ; and the work upon the super- 
structure will never cease, until in the fulness of 
time, in the ages ahead, this city of Meriden shall 
have reached her crowning height, and like the 
cities of the plain begun to moulder back into 
oblivion. 

Meriden has placed herself in the lists, and 
should now gather all her strength, her natural 
resources, and her mechanical power for the great 
contest that lies before her. Every citizen should 
feel it his duty to do all that lies in his power to 
increase the prosperity, to add to the beauty and 
attractions, and to foster an enlightened culture 
among the people of the city of Meriden. 

" Honor and shame from no condition rise ; 
Act well your part, — there all the honor lies." 

R. H. 

256 



THE CITY ATTORNEYSHIP 

Letter explaining the True Cause of his Removal 
from that Office. Published in the " Meriden 
Republican,^^ Nov. ii, 1870. 

To MY Fellow-Citizens : 

I DISLIKE newspaper controversy, but I feel that 
1 should perhaps be doing injustice to my many 
kind friends in this city if I did not put within 
their reach a full answer to all the foolish slanders 
which are being circulated against my good name 
and character. To my mere removal from office I 
should make no objection through the columns of 
a public newspaper; but when my character is 
assailed through the public print, I feel bound to 
vindicate it. I leave the members of the Common 
Council to reply, if they see fit, to the insults 
which have been cast upon them. 

As to the charge of malfeasance in bringing 
several complaints against one James Turner and 
wife, keepers of a house of ill-fame on Colony 
Street, and against the persons found in this house 
when the officers made their descent upon it, 1 
have this much to say. This low, vile den of 
iniquity, situated right in the heart of the city, 
17 257 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

in one of the principal streets, and within a stone's 
throw of many of the finest residences in the 
city, had been loudly complained of both to me 
and to the police officers for many months. The 
policemen had spent many nights in watching the 
house in the vain hope of establishing a success- 
ful prosecution against the inmates ; and when, 
finally, through the instrumentality of one of the 
inmates, who turned state's evidence (not because 
there was one complaint against him, but because 
there were three in all, which would send him to 
jail for many months), I was able to commence a 
successful prosecution against the inmates, I deter- 
mined to bring complaints for the several different 
crimes which the statute has defined, and of which 
I believed these parties were guilty, and for which 
they were both to be punished, so that if I failed 
to get a conviction on some of the complaints for 
want of sufficient evidence or other cause, I might 
succeed on others, — and so I hoped to rid this 
community of this long-standing pest. I do not 
think any reasonable man or woman ought to 
blame me for my conduct in this affair. 

The city received 1^41.54, and paid out ^34, 
including my fees and all expenses in the cases 
brought in connection with this house of ill-fame ; 
so that the city really made ^7.46, besides ridding 
itself of a disgraceful nuisance. If I had brought 
only one or two complaints and failed to get a 
conviction on them, the city would have been 
258 



CITY ATTORNEYSHIP 

obliged to pay the bills, and would have received 
nothing for it. The prisoner paid Mr. Charles H. 
Shaw $50 for defending him, and he paid Mr. 
O. H. Piatt in addition, — how much, I do not 
know. I tried the case alone, and got ^32.96 for 
my services ; and if any man thinks the city paid 
too much for its counsel, and begrudges me my 
money, I say to him that hereafter he is welcome to 
all such disgusting prosecutions. For my part, I 
would rather be doing something else ; it would be 
more in accordance with a man's better feelings. 

On page 21, section 45, of the city charter you 
find these words : " Said police court may reduce 
or disallow fees taxable by said court in cases 
where the negligence of any ministerial officer, or 
the discharge of the accused for want of evidence, 
or the insufficiency of the service rendered, or 
other circumstances, shall render such restriction or 
disallowance expedient in the view of said court, 
in the exercise of its sound discretion." From 
this, every person will see that it was within the 
power of the judge to have reduced or disallowed 
my fees in these cases ; and, further, that it was his 
duty, as a sworn officer of the city, to have stopped 
the judgment to me of any unreasonable fees. 
Therefore, if, as it is alleged, I received unreason- 
able fees, the judge was guilty in allowing me to do 
so. I spoke to the judge at the time of the trial 
about having several complaints against the pris- 
oners, and said that if he had any suggestions to 
259 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

make, I should like to have him make them. He 
said he thought I was warranted in bringing the 
complaints from the information I had received, 
although he did not think the evidence was strong 
enough to warrant the court in finding the parties 
guilty on all of the complaints. 

On the day of my removal I asked the judge, at 
the request of some of my friends, for the reasons 
for my removal. He told me that he had no fault 
to find with me, that it was nothing I was to blame 
for ; but he said that there were certain assurances 
held out to him when he continued Mr. Levi E. 
Coe (for whose removal I have never heard any 
reason given than perhaps this) and myself in 
office which had not been fulfilled, and he did not 
feel disposed to continue us any longer in office. 
I asked him what those assurances were, and he 
would not tell me. Last July a person came into 
my office and said that he was authorized to say 
that I would be appointed city attorney if I would 
use my influence to secure his appointment to 
another office under the city government. I turned 
a cold shoulder on that person ; and ever since 
then he has vilified me in bar-rooms, saloons, and 
wherever he could get a listener, and has repeatedly 
threatened that I should be removed from my 
office. And more than two weeks before I was 
removed, and more than two weeks before these 
cases were brought against Turner and his wife, it 
260 



CITY ATTORNEYSHIP 

was announced by this man in a certain saloon in 
this city that I was soon to be removed. 

It is four years this week since I came to 
Meriden, and there was only one kind hand 
stretched out to welcome me then, — Hon. O. H. 
Piatt's. During these four years I have been as- 
tonished at the many kind offices and favors which 
the members of the city government and so many 
of the respectable citizens of this place have shown 
to me. I take this, the first fitting opportunity which 
I have ever had, to thank them ; and while it 
would not be appropriate for me to mention in the 
columns of a newspaper the long list of names 
of men in this place who, without distinction of 
party, at one time or another, have gone out of 
their way and left their own business and cares to 
do me some kind office, I have treasured up their 
names ; and whether I spend my days in this place 
or elsewhere, I shall ever hold in grateful remem- 
brance the citizens of Meriden. I am conscious, 
in office or out of office, of having done as any 
man would have his son or brother do. 

Ratcliffe Hicks. 



261 



THE STAFFORD DISASTER 

To THE Editor of the "Courant": 

The appalling disaster at Stafford invokes the 
charitable benefactions of the people of this State. 
A vast amount of property has been annihilated, 
the important industries of the town have been 
crippled, and a thousand operatives who depend 
upon their daily labor for their daily bread have 
been thrown out of employment for the coming 
six months at least. 

There is no insurance and no salvage to relieve 
the bitterness and suffering entailed by this great 
calamity, unless it wells up in the benevolent hearts 
of the people of Connecticut. Such calamities, 
either by flood or by fire, are liable to visit any 
community in this Commonwealth, and I for one 
believe that such calamities call for the active and 
practical assistance of the State government. In- 
dividual charities are limited and very often ill 
directed. The State, in administering its charities, 
can devise means much better calculated to accom- 
plish the desired results, and it so scatters the 
burden that no one feels his portion. An appro- 
priation of fifty thousand dollars would not pay for 
one-sixth of all the property lost, but would help 
262 



STAFFORD DISASTER 

the town to repair its roads and bridges, and sup- 
port its unemployed operatives until they can find 
work, besides carrying encouragement to the man- 
ufacturers to rebuild their works and set their idle 
spindles whirling. This appropriation would be 
less than ten cents for every individual in this 
State ; and who would begrudge that amount of 
money for so good a cause? 

Again, there are eight dams to be rebuilt, and 
the people who own property or live below them 
have a right to know that they are this time to be 
properly constructed. Now is the time, if ever, 
for the State to intercede for their protection, for 
it will be too late after they are rebuilt. The 
inhabitants of the towns of Stafford, Tolland, Wil- 
lington, Mansfield, Coventry, and Windham, the 
stockholders of the New London Northern Rail- 
road, and the depositors in the Tolland and other 
savings-banks that hold mortgages on property in 
the wake of these dams have a deep interest in 
their proper construction. Millions of property 
and thousands of lives all over this State are 
depending on the stability of similar structures. 
This awful warning should not go by unheeded. 
There is no time to be lost. The Legislature 
should be at once convened. It costs nothing, as 
they are paid by the year ; and in one day they 
could finish this whole matter, and every man of 
them would say, " I was never engaged in any 
better business." 

263 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

The sublimest wisdom of the ages and the key- 
note of the Christian doctrine, as it comes rever- 
berating through nineteen centuries, is embraced 
in these few words : " Do unto others as you 
would that they should do to you." 

Ratcliffe Hicks. 



264 



THE JOHNSON TRIAL 

Editor of the Meriden "Republican": 

Dear Sir, — As the shortest way to answer many 
questions asked me daily, I send you the following 
statement. 

On a day in the opening of the year 1872, a 
poor and friendless Swede, John Robert Johnson, 
came to the enterprising city of Meriden in search 
of employment. He found it as a mason. By 
one of those accidental events by which a man's 
future is made or unmade in this world, he ob- 
tained lodging in the house of a woman of brutal 
tastes and of a still more brutal heart. While at 
work, an unfortunate accident befell him. His 
right hand was nearly severed by a brass drain, 
and he was for many days unable to work. This 
woman, ready to coin her soul into money, refused 
him any longer food and lodging; and retaining 
his best clothes, and leaving him only his over- 
alls and working clothes, she drove him, sick, 
penniless, and friendless, from her door, adding 
imprecation and abuse to her cruel treatment. 
Half famished, and with a wandering mind due to 
disease and trouble, he returned for the purpose 
of getting his clothing. He was set upon by this 
fiendish woman the very moment he opened 
265 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

the door, and under a wild impulse he struck her a 
blow which resulted in her death. It was a thing he 
had never designed to do, and a thing that never 
would have happened if this anomaly of her sex 
had not provoked and treated him as she did. 

A celebrated French writer, Auguste Laugel, in 
his recent work, says that there is in every human 
breast something of the wild animal, — a some- 
thing in every human creature which when driven 
to the verge of endurance, when crushed to the 
earth by cruel treatment, impels him to strike his 
persecutor. John R. Johnson is a human being, 
with human feelings and passions ; and in an 
unguarded moment he committed an act which it 
would be unjust to punish him for by imprisonment 
during the remainder of his natural life. 

On his first trial Johnson was charged with 
murder in the first degree, and convicted of that 
crime and sentenced to be hung. It appeared in 
evidence on the trial that on the day in question, 
being weak from sickness and hunger, he drank 
something which ordinarily would not have affected 
him, but which in his then condition made him 
crazy. It was claimed, in his behalf, that, as by the 
law murder in the first degree requires deliberation 
and premeditation, the jury had a right to take into 
consideration the fact of his intoxication in arriving 
at a conclusion whether the act was committed 
with deliberation and premeditation. The court 
said that drunkenness was no excuse for crime, 
266 



JOHNSON TRIAL 

and that it was not to be considered by the jury. 
The Supreme Court, however, subsequently decided 
that the fact of intoxication should go to the jury, 
and that it was for them to say whether the man 
was so intoxicated that he could not have premed- 
itated and deliberated concerning the act, but did 
it unconsciously. This was the first time that this 
eminently wise and just doctrine was ever pro- 
claimed by the Supreme Court of this State, or of 
any New England State. The want of this doc- 
trine has in Connecticut sent more than one unfor- 
tunate victim to an untimely and unmerited grave ; 
and the enunciation of this intelligent Christian 
doctrine would have saved Gaffney, who suffered 
within two years on the gallows, in the city of 
Buffalo, for a crime he never knowingly committed. 
On the second trial, John Robert Johnson was 
charged with murder in the second degree, was 
convicted, and sent to state-prison. On this trial 
it was claimed in his behalf, that, as malice is by 
law necessary to constitute the crime of murder in 
the second degree, and that without malice it was 
manslaughter, the jury should therefore have the 
right to consider the fact of drunkenness in deter- 
mining whether the act was done with malice. 
Malice requires the use of the reasoning faculties, 
and the idiot and the insane — whether the insan- 
ity be caused by disease, opium, or rum — cannot 
be guilty of maHce. In other States they have got 
round this by saying that the killing implies malice ; 
267 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

but the doctrine was scouted out of court in the 
recent case of Stokes, and the enunciation of this 
erroneous doctrine in the court below saved Stokes's 
life. The Supreme Court has refused Johnson a 
new trial, but on what grounds it is not yet known. 
The claim made in Johnson's case must, however, 
eventually become the law. It is a part of the 
code of Prussia, the Netherlands, and Austria ; and 
however much we may boast of America, she fol- 
lows in her laws the reforms in Europe, and rarely 
leads them. 

But it is said that drunkenness is voluntary, and 
therefore no excuse ; and so the courts have said 
for two hundred years. But was it any more vol- 
untary with Johnson than with Mrs. Hess, who 
sold him the drink, knowing full well the effect it 
might have upon him. The result was to both of 
them unforeseen, unsought, and unpremeditated, 
and in the administration of law and justice that 
fact should be taken into consideration. 

The ever present argument against this doctrine 
is founded on an unreasoning fear. The world 
will gradually learn, however, that it is the certainty 
of some punishment rather than the severity of an 
occasional punishment which deters men from 
crime. The people on the Continent of Europe 
are as anxious to preserve their lives as the people 
of Connecticut. It is the same argument that is 
urged against the abolition of capital punishment ; 
but the statistics show that there are less murders 
268 



JOHNSON TRIAL 

in Rhode Island and Michigan since the abolition 
of capital punishment than there were before. 
The time will come when the people of this coun- 
try will look back upon capital punishment and 
the scenes enacted in the execution of it with the 
same disgust and shame that we, of our day, do 
upon those foolish fanatics who once hung men 
and women for being witches, in order to protect 
society. It is no benefit to the dead to crucify 
the living ; and it is no protection to the living to 
enforce a punishment which the rich and powerful 
hardly ever suffer, but the poor and friendless 
rarely escape. Hanging brutalizes the community, 
and too often only attests the inhumanity of man- 
kind to man. The onward march of events for 
two hundred years has eradicated a thousand evils 
and wrongs which the barbaric progenitors of the 
English race had incorporated into the English 
jurisprudence. And time will work wonderful 
changes yet. The man who thinks that the laws 
of America are perfect and will never be improved, 
is filling his own eyes with sand. 

I have done what I could under our present 
laws to alleviate the condition of an unfortunate 
man to whose defence I have been assigned; and 
I trust that the kind Providence that tempers the 
winds to the shorn lamb will move the hearts of 
all good people to assist in relieving John Robert 
Johnson from suffering the extremity of his pun- 
ishment. Ratcliffe Hicks. 
269 



A SOUTHERN TRIP 

From the '' Bridgeport Farmer,'^ March 13, 1873. 

Hon. Ratcliffe Hicks, of Tolland, not only makes 
good speeches in the House of Representatives upon 
any subject in which he takes a particular interest, 
but he has also the faculty, when travelling, of writing 
entertaining sketches. Mr. Hicks is now at Lake- 
wood, N. J., having returned last week from an ex- 
tended Southern tour. By reason of his large real- 
estate and other interests he is well known in this city, 
and the two following letters written by him will be 
read with interest : — 

El Paso, Texas, Feb. 24, 1893. 

After leaving New York, I made my first stop 
at Atlanta. Every time I visit Atlanta I am more 
impressed with the city. It is a Northern city 
transplanted in Southern soil. 

I went from Atlanta to New Orleans, which I 
found had greatly improved in the last five years 
and showed signs of considerable prosperity. The 
establishment of large sugar refineries and cotton- 
mills has been of great benefit to the place. The 
United States government pays annually about 
;^8,ooo,ooo in sugar bounties to planters, and there 
270 



A SOUTHERN TRIP 

are less than one hundred persons who divide this 
money ; but this has been of much help to the State 
of Louisiana. There are many beautiful residences, 
and the city seemed particularly attractive after 
leaving the wintry climate of New York City. 
Flowers were in bloom. Men were cutting the 
lawns, and the gardens were like our own in June. 

I went from New Orleans to San Antonio ; and 
as this was all new to me, I was wonderfully im- 
pressed with the country through which I passed. 
The magnificent fields where they raise their 
sugar-cane and rice reminded me of the fields in 
France, — so level, so rich, and so extensive. 
They are now in the height of their planting, and 
their weather is like ours in June. 

The forests are very interesting to observe, the 
trees being covered with moss, giving them a weird 
appearance. The ground is covered with the low 
palms which we prize so much in the North in 
our hot-houses ; and the leaves of the trees having 
so many different colors — red, white, green, and 
different shades of green and red — made it all 
look exceedingly interesting to a Northern man. 

San Antonio certainly possesses the best climate 
of any place that I ever visited in my travels. It 
is far superior to that of Nice or Naples, or to any 
spot in Europe or the West Indies or America 
which I have seen. The temperature was 75°, but 
it was that dry air which does not cause perspira- 
tion; it was the most exhilarating temperature 
271 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

that I have ever experienced. They are happy if 
they can get two days of rain in the year, for it is 
almost one continuous sunshine with them. It 
seemed strange that on Washington's Birthday, 
when you were suffering from such violent storms, 
people should be walking and driving in San An- 
tonio in weather equal to that of our best summer 
seasons. 

I came on last night to El Paso, and am not 
impressed favorably with the place. It is much 
cooler here, is windy and very dusty, and there 
are no signs of vegetation apparent at present. 

I never before could realize the magnitude of 
the State of Texas. You can travel as for as from 
New York to Chicago, and then go two hundred 
miles farther before you cross the State of Texas, — 
a State which in fifty years is liable to have any- 
where from fifty to seventy-five or perhaps one 
hundred Congressmen, and to equal in Washington 
the power of all the other thirteen original States. 
A State that is larger than New York, Ohio, Indi- 
ana, Illinois, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Maryland, 
and New Jersey, with a climate so favorable to the 
growth of the population, and a soil so favorable 
to its support, has in it possibilities that are mar- 
vellous when you come to think of them soberly. 
It only needs time and double-track railroads and 
speedy communication with Chicago and New 
York and Philadelphia, connecting those places by 
twenty-four or thirty-six hours, to bring this coun- 
272 



A SOUTHERN TRIP 

try to the notice of the Northern people more than 
has ever yet been done. 

Denver, March i, 1893. 

The day I wrote you from El Paso it was very 
windy, and rather disagreeable on account of the 
dust; but the next day was extremely pleasant, 
and the people all said that the previous day was 
an exception. I liked El Paso the more I saw of 
it, especially the climate, as it was considerably 
higher than at San Antonio, and the atmosphere 
was drier and more exhilarating. I bought some 
bank stock when there which pays twelve per 
cent per annum, and earns about twenty per cent. 

I went over into Mexico and visited the city of 
Juarez. It is a real Mexican city, and in visiting 
it one gets a very good idea of the Mexicans. I 
am frank to say that I was not favorably impressed 
with the Mexicans or their country. They are 
about two hundred years behind the times, and, in 
my opinion, always will be. 

This land from San Antonio to El Paso suffers 
greatly from want of water, and I never realized 
before the importance or the magnitude of the 
undertaking to irrigate that vast section of country. 
There are thousands of miles of land capable of 
wonderful development in the future when water 
has been provided by some feasible system of irri- 
gation. It is calculated that thirty thousand cattle 
have perished in the last year between San Antonio 
iS 273 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

and El Paso from thirst, and it is a pitiful sight to 
see the cattle all along the railroad sufiering and 
perishing from the same cause. 

One word more about the magnitude of the 
State of Texas. It has over nine thousand miles 
of railroad. To get an idea of what those figures 
mean, — its railroads if stretched in a continuous 
line would reach across the Atlantic Ocean three 
times ; or, to express it in another way, they would 
reach from Liverpool to New York, across the 
prairies and mountains to San Francisco, and 
across the Pacific Ocean to Japan. 

Leaving El Paso, we came up on the Santa F6 
road through New Mexico, — a country suffering, 
as I have indicated heretofore, from want of water, 
and inhabited very largely by Mexicans living in 
little adobe or earth houses one story high, and 
giving poor promise of becoming good American 
citizens and voters. 

I stayed at Colorado Springs one night. I pre- 
sume it is a beautiful place in summer. It is finely 
laid out, and is in a mountainous country with fine 
natural scenery, and is largely inhabited by wealthy 
people. I visited the Garden of the Gods, and 
was not so much impressed as I expected to be. 
After going over the Canadian Pacific and across 
the mountains on the Santa F^ road, and having 
visited most of the mountainous countries of 
Europe, the Garden of the Gods seems to me to 
be largely overwritten. 

274 



A SOUTHERN TRIP 

I came thence to Denver. There seems to me 
to be only two cities in the West, — Chicago and 
Denver. To hear the people tell of the wonderful 
fortunes accumulated here in a short space of time 
sounds like a novel ; but they confirm their state- 
ments by showing you the people and the prop- 
erty, and you finally have to confess that more and 
larger fortunes have been acquired in Denver and 
vicinity in the last ten or twenty years than in any 
other place on the globe. They show you prop- 
erty which belonged to a lady here some fifteen 
years ago, left to her and appraised at ^2,200, 
which sold recently for $125,000. They show you 
lots which sold a few years ago at $400, and now 
sell quickly at $4,000. They show you a corner 
lot owned by a Connecticut lady which was sold 
eight years ago for $40,000, soon after sold for 
$80,000, a few months later for $120,000, and 
about a year ago for $235,000 ! I give these as 
simply specimens of the v/onderful advance in 
property in this city. I have never seen or known 
anything like it ; and why any young man, be he 
lawyer, doctor, physician, dentist, or business man, 
stays down East is beyond my comprehension, — 
that is, if he cares to accumulate a fortune and be 
in the swim. 

It is estimated that there are over one hundred 

millionaires in Denver, a place of one hundred and 

twenty thousand inhabitants, — which is probably 

more than there are in all Connecticut, with seven 

275 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants and two 
hundred years of savings. 

I have had one or two propositions made me 
here to go into large real- estate transactions ; but 
while I think there is lots of money in them, I 
have finally made up my mind to keep out of them, 
for I can see that it will make for me more work. 
I have purchased some bank stock here, however, 
as a kind of souvenir of the place. It pays eight 
per cent annually on cost, and also pays the taxes. 
I am very favorably inclined towards the banks of 
Colorado as an investment. I find that they are 
making a great deal of money, much more than 
similar institutions in the East can make, and they 
seem to make it safely and to be well managed. 
I think it a grand thing for every man having 
money to invest to visit the West and see for him- 
self this country and the opportunities for making 
money, even if he does not care to try it himself. 

R. H. 



276 



A CONDENSED HISTORY OF 
BERMUDA. 

Letter to the " Meriden Republican." 

Hamilton, Bermuda, April 21, 1875. 

Dear Republican, — Judge Sumner and myself 
arrived here Monday morning, having been one 
day longer on the voyage than we had expected. 
We were both of us somewhat sea-sick the first day 
or two out. Sumner kept calling for oranges, and 
he told John (the little Welshman that waited on 
us) to tell the steward not to be discouraged : he 
was only trying to lay a foundation in his stomach 
to put something substantial on. 

The hotel at Hamilton, where we are stopping, 
is kept by Mr. Dodge, who in the summer keeps 
the hotel at the top of Mount Washington. The 
accommodations at the hotel are very good, and 
the charge is three dollars per day. 

The Bermudas are a group of about three hun- 
dred islands, distant from New York about seven 
hundred miles, and on a latitude with Charleston, 
S. C. The group of islands extend thirty miles, 
and by means of ferries and bridges you can drive 
277 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

nearly the whole length of the group. In the 
harbors lie one hundred little islands which make 
one think of Lake George. We have been driving 
around the islands for the past four days. The 
first thing that attracts the attention of a stranger 
from New England is the vegetation. The first 
day or two we did nothing but stop the driver and 
inquire, " What is that tree ? " There are growing 
here India-rubber, date, cocoanut, lemon, orange, 
palmetto, coffee, bamboo, fig, tamarind, and many 
other kinds of trees. The streets are lined with a 
very homely-looking tree. They call it the " Pride 
of India." 

The next thing which attracts attention are the 
wonderful caves, containing beautiful pools of 
water, with splendid specimens of stalactites hang- 
ing from the roofs. Then there are forts and 
dockyards. This is the largest military and naval 
station of the English government, except Malta. 
It is estimated that the English have spent as high 
as $500,000,000 here in all. The dockyards are 
enormous, and every hill is crowned with a fortifi- 
cation. The English undoubtedly regard this as a 
key to their Western possessions, and a valuable 
spot in case of war with us. 

There are about twenty thousand inhabitants on 
the islands. Their principal business is raising vege- 
tables for the American market. They can raise 
every year two or three crops of onions, potatoes, 
tomatoes, watermelons, squashes, beans, and all our 
278 



BERMUDA 

varieties of vegetables. Their principal export now 
is onions. They could, if they were as enterprising 
as our New England farmers, raise a large quantity 
of all kinds of vegetables for export to New York. I 
asked one colored man, who was gathering onions 
in a field, how much he would get for his crop this 
year. He said ^2,000. The two races live here 
on the most perfect good terms. The blacks out- 
number the whites three to one. The blacks vote 
and hold office, the same as the whites ; but no 
man can vote unless he is worth $300. 

Bermuda is governed by a little parliament of its 
own. The climate is one of the best in the world. 
Water never freezes. They have no fires in their 
houses, and sit out doors the year round. In sum- 
mer it is not very warm. Sunstrokes are unknown, 
and thunder- showers are rare. A lightning-rod 
man would be a great curiosity here, as they have 
none. The place has a Spanish look. The houses 
are mostly one-story, built of soft stone, resem- 
bling chalk, sawed out in blocks ; the roofs are of 
the same material. They have no wells, as the 
island is all a solid rock. They save their rain- 
water, and keep it in large covered stone-cisterns 
in their yards. The buildings and roofs are all 
whitewashed. The roads are as hard as rock. The 
soil is rarely more than a foot deep anywhere, and 
they use the spade instead of the plough. The islands 
are of oval formation, and are surrounded by reefs 
extending eight or ten miles out to sea ; so that it 
279 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

is very dangerous approaching them, and nearly 
every week some ship is wrecked because the 
captain does not know the channel. 

There is no doubt that these islands will be 
more and more visited from year to year by 
Americans. It is only within four or five years 
that a steamer has been regularly running here 
from New York. As the beauty of the islands and 
the salubrity of the climate become known, and 
the ease of access increases, Americans will flock 
here instead of going to Florida. The fare from 
New York here and back is ^50, which includes 
everything. We shall leave here in about a week. 
Yours very truly, 

Ratcliffe Hicks. 



280 



PROPOSED REDUCTION 

Of the Rate of Interest to be Charged by Savings 
Banks and the School Fund, 1880. 

To THE Members of the Connecticut Legislature: 

There is an act pending before your Committee 
on Banks which is worthy of your serious consider- 
ation. It is the proposed reduction in the rate of 
interest to be charged by Savings Banks and the 
School Fund. It concerns more directly the in- 
terests of your constituents than any and all other 
legislation pending before your body. 

It is a question which you are compelled to 
meet. Are you going to vote on the side of wis- 
dom, of justice, and of relief to the already over- 
burdened land-holders of the State ; or are you 
going to allow capital to take advantage of its 
power to wrench undue returns from the struggling 
property-holders of Connecticut? If you fail in 
your duty, another Legislature will right the wrong. 
This question is now being agitated by the voters, 
and will not down until it is righted. 

What are the facts? 

I. No man to-day can safely invest his money 
where it will earn more than from four to five per 
281 



RATCLTFFE HICKS 

cent net. In a late number of the " Financial 
Chronicle " a comparison is made between the 
value of representative stocks and bonds at the same 
dates in 1872 and in 1880, and shows that upon 
an average the purchaser would realize from six to 
eight per cent on his capital in 1872, and that he 
realizes only from 3I to 4f per cent now. Will 
you, then, compel the honest, industrious masses of 
this State to pay six per cent when they furnish the 
best collateral security in the world, — the roof 
over their heads? 

2. There is no prospect that the rate of interest 
will increase for many years, if ever. 

(a) The West, which so long absorbed the 
money of the East, is no longer asking for loans. 
Good Western mortgages are readily taken at 
home. 

(/^) The legislation of the Western States is 
tending to drive Eastern capital away. In Illinois, 
last winter, a law was passed forbidding the taking 
of more than eight per cent interest, and also for- 
bidding the mortgaging of land to trustees to secure 
bonds, thus hampering the future sale of Western 
loans. Again the Legislature of Illinois has for- 
bidden all corporations located out of the State 
from holding land longer than five years ; so that 
if such a corporation is obliged to foreclose its loans, 
it must sell the lands within five years. 

(<r) The ill-luck that has followed all persons 
who have loaned money at the West has taught the 



REDUCTION OF INTEREST 

East a fearful lesson. Only fools and children are 
now caught with such investments. All safe and 
prudent men prefer four per cent where they know 
it is safe, to seven or eight per cent with an even 
chance that they may never see the principal again. 
Many a poor man has gone West to find that the 
land on which he held a mortgage was under water, 
or that the buildings had been moved off, or that 
the property was almost worthless and had been 
sold for taxes, and that what little was left no 
neighbors would buy or rent to help out an " East- 
ern shark," as they call the bondholder. 

{d) The late decision of our United States 
Supreme Court in the case of the bonds of the city 
of Memphis has driven the last nail in the coffin 
of Western credit. The city owed a large sum of 
money; and as a short way to repudiate, they 
went to the Legislature of Tennessee and got an 
act passed wiping out the city charter. The United 
States Supreme Court last month said it was legal, 
and that the bondholder must lose everything. Any 
man who can buy a Western town, school district, 
city, or county bond after that decision has faith 
enough to move mountains. It was bad enough 
before. If you sued and obtained a decision 
against a town or city, the officers would all resign 
rather than pay the debt. But this crowns the 
infamy of Western credit. 

{e) Money is bound to be cheap. Within two 
years more than three hundred millions of dollars 
283 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

of new money have been added to the currency of 
America, and our currency is that much larger 
than it was two years ago. The wildest dream of 
a Greenbacker never looked for such an inflation 
of our currency as we have to-day. So long as 
every man is permitted to dig gold and carry it to 
the mint and have it coined, and put it into cir- 
culation without limit, you may look for cheap 
money and plenty of it. 

(/) The ease with which money is transferred 
from European centres to America by telegraph 
and otherwise, the agencies which large European 
houses have established in America will tend to 
keep the rate of money in New York on a par 
with that in Europe. There is going to be more 
nearly an equilibrium in money the world over 
than formerly. The ways of doing business are 
changing, and money runs after investment. Three 
thousand miles to-day is no more than two hun- 
dred miles was fifty years ago. If money is dear 
at any place, it pours in there until the price 
comes near to a level with that of other places. 
The rate of interest in France is four per cent ; in 
England, three and 3^ per cent; in Germany, 3^ 
per cent. Our own government contemplates 
issuing a three per cent bond, and that is about 
all a four per cent bond nets to-day. Of course, 
money will be dear in new and barbarous countries, 
but we in New England are getting to be an old 
and civilized country. 

284 



REDUCTION OF INTEREST 

(g) There is no business to-day that pays, on 
an average, more than four or five per cent net 
income. Banking, insurance, manufacturing, and 
agriculture do not pay on the average more than 
four per cent, after paying all expenses and taxes. 
Of course, some branches pay more, but some pay 
much less. I am speaking of the average. Manu- 
facturing is overdone, and the country cannot fur- 
nish a market for any increase in our manufactures. 
Manufacturers are not going to demand much 
more money than they are now using. 

3. The rate of interest should correspond with 
the annual return of property, which is between 
four and five per cent. As matters stand to-day, 
no man can afford to borrow money on real estate, 
keep it in repair, pay the taxes and insurance, and 
pay more than five per cent. If borrowers pay 
more for a series of years, they are carrying a 
burden which will, sooner or later, bury the major- 
ity of them in poverty. 

4. It was said in 1876, when you reduced the 
rate of interest from seven to six per cent, that 
depositors would draw out their money ; but such 
has not proved to be the result. Now, if you 
reduce the rate of interest to five per cent, so that 
banks can only declare 4^ to 4f per cent divi- 
dends, the money will not be drawn out. The 
profit which the banks make by collecting the 
money in advance ought nearly to pay the expenses 
and taxes. No individual can invest his money 

285 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

where it can earn more than four per cent. If he 
gets more than four per cent, he takes the risk 
that may wipe out his principal. Large trust- 
estates are loaning money in Connecticut for a 
term of years at five per cent, and absorbing some 
of our best bank-mortgages. Savings Banks in 
Massachusetts and New York State are loaning 
money at five per cent. Individuals in this State 
are loaning here cheerfully at 5^ per cent. Sav- 
ings Banks in this State are occasionally loaning 
money on the sly at i\\'Q per cent. If it is left 
with the banks to fix the rate, a few favorites or 
influential parties will get their money at five per 
cent, while the great mass of borrowers, less sharp 
and conniving, will have to pay the old rates. 

5. It is for the interest of the depositors in 
Savings Banks that the rate of interest on loans 
should be reduced. The lower the rate, the better 
security you can command. Depositors in a Sav- 
ings Bank do not want to have the bank lose its 
best real-estate loans, and have only the fag ends 
left. Again, depositors in Savings Banks ought to 
tremble when they see how much of this money 
is being invested in New York city bank- stock and 
in Western railroad mortgages, — roost hazardous 
securities. Some of them are going to fail, — 
human foresight cannot prevent it ; and if only 
one in ten of such investments fail, it reduces the 
income of the total investments below five per 
cent, 

286 



REDUCTION OF INTEREST 

6. A Savings Bank needs prosperous and healthy 
borrowers as much as it needs depositors. Re- 
member that a vast majority of the borrowers 
invested their money in real estate, which has 
shrunk one hundred per cent in value, while the 
present amount of their loan remains the same. A 
reduction in the rate of interest would enhance the 
value of real estate, and so enable Savings Banks to 
unload much of the real estate on their hands. 

7. Savings Banks in this State, not knowing 
what to do, have invested largely in Government 
bonds, which net them only about three per cent. 
The Savings Banks have to-day a million of money 
on deposit which they do not know what to do 
with. If the rate was made five per cent, it would 
be loaned at home. The true policy is to encour- 
age people to borrow money from Savings Banks, 
build homes, and add to the wealth of the State. 
Why should not the honest, hard-working people 
of Connecticut borrow the money from Savings 
Banks at five per cent, instead of investing the 
deposits in New York bank-stock, in Western 
railroad and in Government bonds? Is it policy 
to drive all the money we can out of the State ? 

It seems as if the true policy ought to be to keep 
in our own State all the money that we can, and to 
give the people of Connecticut the use of the 
money at as low a rate as we loan out of the State. 

8. Most Savings Banks are declining deposits 
for the very reason that they cannot invest them. 
287 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

By so doing, they are defeating the object for 
which they were created ; namely, to provide a 
safe place where poor and ignorant people can 
invest their small earnings. If this state of affairs 
lasts much longer, the government ought to, and 
will, establish a postal savings-bank for the benefit 
of poor people. 

9. Many Savings Banks are contemplating low- 
ering the rate to five per cent ; but they are afraid 
to do so for fear that they may lose temporarily 
some of their depositors. If it is made uniform, 
then no bank will have any advantage over another 
on account of its location or size. Small banks 
located in growing places have great advantages 
over some of our older and wealthy Savings Banks. 

10. It should be a law that Savings Banks shall 
not pay more than four per cent on all deposits 
over $2,000. They then could easily pay five per 
cent on all deposits less than that sum. Large 
deposits are made by wealthy people to escape 
taxation ; and this is all wrong. 

11. No man can afford to borrow money of a 
Savings Bank to-day and invest it in business. The 
laws of business have set a limit to the avarice of 
the capitalist ; and if the Legislature of this State 
overrides those laws, and exacts a rate of interest 
above the amount that the borrower can afford to 
pay, it only exhausts the security of the bank, and 
finally swamps in one common misfortune borrower 
and lender. 



REDUCTION OF INTEREST 

12. This question comes properly before your 
body. You are the custodians and managers of 
the Savings Banks of this State, and the sole man- 
ager of the School Fund. You have said in the 
past, and you must say in the future, how they shall 
be managed. The safety of the bank, the security 
of the depositor, the welfare of the borrower, the 
good name of the State are all at stake, and in 
your hands for keeping. You are the final arbiter 
between the borrower and the lender ; and it is for 
you to say what, under all circumstances, is the fair 
rate of savings-bank interest in this State. The 
poor people of Connecticut, who have mortgaged 
their homes and their very lives to the Savings 
Banks, can only look to you for justice. They 
cannot pay off their loans, they cannot change 
them, they are tied hand and foot ; and they ask 
that they shall be compelled to pay only that rate 
of interest which, with the taxes, insurance, and 
repairs, is a fair and just remuneration to the 
borrower. They do not expect to borrow money 
as cheap as the millionaire can ; but, like the Land 
League of Ireland, they believe in the motto " Live 
and let live." 

The reports of the Bank and School Fund Com- 
missioners this year point out the necessity for this 
proposed reduction in the rate of interest. 



19 289 



LETTER OPPOSING JURY 
TRIALS 

From the ''MericUn Republican." 

I REGRET to see that an effort is being made to 
take away from a prisoner the privilege of being 
tried by the court. The Legislature of 1878 may 
turn back a little the wheels of progress, but some 
succeeding Legislature will certainly re -enact the 
law with still greater privileges to the accused. 
Every thoughtful, conscientious citizen glories in 
the fact that Connecticut gives to every accused 
man all reasonable opportunities to prove his inno- 
cence. It permits him to tell his own story in 
court ; it furnishes him with counsel, and gives him 
the closing argument. It is better that ten guilty 
men should escape than that one innocent man 
should suffer. 

A case that cannot stand a fair investigation 
before an unprejudiced and intelligent court ought 
never to be tried. Now, it is proposed to give to 
every man who has a civil suit, which involves the 
honesty of a horse-trade, the right to elect whether 
he shall be tried by a judge or a jury ; but when a 
man's life or liberty is at stake he is to have no 
290 



LETTER OPPOSING JURY TRIALS 

choice. If there is any force in the argument 
against the right of election, it is as good in one 
case as in the other. It only illustrates again what 
history so thoroughly teaches, — the inhumanity of 
man to man. 

A trial by jury is a bequest of the Middle Ages, 
and was the invention of a people who were ground 
to earth by despotic rulers and unprincipled judges, 
the lackeys and appointees of those rulers. It was 
then a bulwark of protection to the people ; but 
in a free government, where the judges are above 
suspicion and are appointed by the people, a jury 
trial is a wart on the body politic, which the good 
sense and experience of the American people will 
soon cauterize and eradicate. 

Every argument is in favor of a trial before a court 
made up of intelligent and unprejudiced lawyers, who 
carefully note all the evidence, conscientiously weigh 
every point, intelligently consider all the legal ques- 
tions involved, and coolly state the reasons for the 
conclusion to which they have come. The jury can 
carry in their minds the evidence in a case lasting 
several days. Oftentimes some witness who hap- 
pens to make a bad appearance, and some prejudice 
that the jury may have against the party or their 
counsel, are the turning points in the case. Jury 
lawyers are not generally selected for their great 
learning or known probity, but because they are 
consummate blackguards, and can keep a court- 
room in a titter; because they are prominent 
291 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

politicians in the country, and are supposed to 
have friends in the panel ; because they possess 
attractive manners, and know the thousand and 
one little points practised in the court-room and 
out to win the favorable opinion of the jury. 
Everybody knows that a railroad company, an 
insurance company, a municipal corporation, a 
man against a winsome woman, stands no chance 
before a jury, twelve butchers of the law, and the 
evidence. It is provided that they are not bound 
to submit to a jury trial; but is the question of 
man's life or liberty of less consequence? 

Instead, then, of repealing this wise provision, the 
Legislature of 1878 ought to take steps to wipe from 
the laws of the State every provision for preserving 
a trial by jury ; for it is a relic of the feudal ages, 
for which we have no use in these modern times. 
It is a legal snare, and it is gambling for justice at 
a sacrifice of the rights and liberties of the citizen. 
It is of the earth, earthy, and belongs to the age of 

the javelin and the bow. 

Ratcliffe Hicks. 



292 



A TAX-PAYER ON CONSOLI- 
DATION 

From the " Meriden Republican.'" 

To THE Editor of the " Republican " : 

Let us make a last appeal to all voters to come 
out on Monday to vote for consolidation. The 
ballot-box will be open from 8 a. m. until 5 p. m., 
at the Town Hall. The friends of the measure are 
in a large majority, and will prove it if they will 
only come out to vote. The great danger is that 
the friends of the measure will not take the pains 
to vote. Therefore we urge every man who has 
the best interests of Meriden at heart to vote for 
consolidation. It will result in a great saving to 
the town. It will put the management of our 
schools into the hands of a permanent board of 
our best citizens. It will improve the character of 
our schools. It is doing just what the Legislature 
will compel every town in the State to do within 
ten years. 

A well-developed system of public schools is 
worth everything to Meriden. You have no system 
now. They say that it means a high school. We 
do not expect to see a high school in our day, but 
it is just what Meriden needs. The boys and girls 
293 



RATCLIFFE HTCKS 

of Meriden need just as good public schools as any 
city, unless you expect your children will only dig 
roads, build cellar-walls, and do housework. The 
only way to give your children a good start in Hfe 
is to give them a good education. Not all your 
churches, not all your factories, will do one-half as 
much to attract men of enterprise and wealth to 
your city as would a first-class school. Men are 
working to-day in Meriden and living in New 
Haven and Hartford, because they want to give 
their children the best school advantages. Every 
poor man should vote for consolidation, for he 
cannot afford to send children to Hartford to 
school. And still voters are howling round the 
streets that if you vote for consolidation it will 
result in having one or two schools of a high grade 
and dispensing with the great number of depart- 
ments in the smaller schools. That is just what 
ought to be done. The smaller schools are graded 
to death. The men who bring up such arguments 
belong to the past generations. Consolidation has 
worked well wherever adopted. The few men 
who desire to defeat it are circulating a lot of 
foolish stories of what will be done if this law is 
passed. All these stories are false, and they know 
it. They have more fears and foolish imaginations 
than any woman ever had at childbirth. 

Tax-payers of Meriden, friends of poor men and 
patrons of schools, vote for consolidation next 
Monday ! A Tax-payer. 

294 



NEW HAVEN COUNTY COM- 
MISSIONERS 

From the " Meriden Republican" 

The report of the majority of the Committee 
appointed to investigate the affairs of New Haven 
County, as a specimen of political prejudice and 
perversion, is without parallel in the history of this 
State, Failing to prove the surreptitious appro- 
priation of a single dollar of the county money, 
the majority of the Committee seek by false in- 
nuendoes and unfair influences to injure the reputa- 
tion of these county commissioners, and ask for 
their removal on evidence on which no decent man 
would hang his dog, 

1. As to the removal of August Williams, the 
report of the minority of the committee — R, W. 
Newhall, Esq., of Middletown, law-partner of Judge 
Culver — shows that there were many reasons for 
his removal ; and it recommends that the question 
of the legality of his removal be tested by the 
courts to which Williams has already appealed. 

2, It is not claimed that the evidence shows 
that Commissioners Birdsey and Lake ever ap- 

295 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

propriated a dollar dishonestly ; but the majority 
of the committee say that a certain record-book is 
missing, and that therefore it is fair to presume 
that these men have stolen it to cover up their 
defalcations. It is just as fair to presume that 
some of the men who for twelve months have pur- 
sued the commissioners with bloodhound ferocity 
have taken it away (for it was within their reach) 
and then have charged it on the commissioners ; 
we have heard of such things being done before. 
The height of Commissioner Birdsey's offence is 
that for three months he deposited small sums of 
county money in his own name in the bank ; but 
he refunded every dollar of it four months before 
any investigation was ever proposed. Dr. Hatch, 
all the time he was superintendent of the Reform 
School, kept and deposited the State's money in his 
own name in the bank. As to all the charges for 
services, these commissioners followed in the foot- 
steps of their Republican predecessors, or took 
the legal advice of Judge Stoddard of New Haven. 
If they sinned, they sinned unwittingly and not 
wittingly; and to punish Birdsey for their action 
is akin to that infernal doctrine which robbed 
heaven of the presence of unbaptized infants. We 
do not believe that the Republicans of this Legis- 
lature can be induced so far to [ignore their man- 
hood as to remove these commissioners upon mere 
inference to satisfy the relentless animosity of a few 
men whom they have offended by their official 
296 



NEW HAVEN COUNTY COMMISSIONERS 

action, and it remains to be seen whether honest 
men propose to indulge in this scalping warfare. 

The Constitution has provided a way to remove 
dishonest officers of the State ; to wit, by impeach- 
ment. We know of only two ways by which they 
can be removed : one is by impeachment, and the 
other is by abolishing the office. It is a fair infer- 
ence that when the State has provided a way to 
remedy a wrong, you are to pursue that way. 

In two States of the Union a resolution similar 
to the one submitted in this case, and under 
similar constitutional provisions, has been declared 
by the Supreme Courts of those States unconsti- 
tutional and void, and nowhere can be found a 
case that supports the legality of this proceeding. 
We have no doubt as to what will be the decision 
of our Supreme Court if this question ever comes 
before it; for if this action is legal, it opens the 
door to political anarchy and unhinges the safe- 
guards of society. If all officers of the State — 
like bank, insurance, railroad, and county com- 
missioners — hold their offices subject to removal 
by every recurring Legislature, without a repeal of 
the law under which their offices were created and 
by the mere force of the prevailing argument of 
eight to seven, then the corner-stone upon which 
rests the safety of our political institutions is under- 
mined. The majority are never obliged to give a 
reason for their action ; and it only needs some 
exciting cause, like another rebellion, to bring into 
297 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

play the use of this most dangerous and uncon- 
stitutional power. In my humble judgment there 
is only one claim on which this proposed action 
can be sustained ; it is the claim of the highway- 
man, that might makes right. 

Ratcliffe Hicks. 



298 



SHALL SUPREME COURT JUDGES 
BE EXCUSED FROM CIRCUIT 
DUTY? 

To THE Editor of the Hartford " Times " : 

I READ in your paper of the 8th a report signed 
by Mr, Hammersley, which was unfavorable to the 
proposed exempting of the Supreme Court judges 
from circuit duty. As I had the misfortune to 
introduce this resolution, I want to say a word in 
its defence, — not that I expect at this time to ac- 
complish the desired result, but because I want 
to set the faces of this generation towards one ^of 
the improvements which, though defeated to-day, 
is sure to come in the near future. Let me then 
summarize some of the arguments in favor of this 
proposed change. 

I . Our Supreme Court is overworked. To hear 
and investigate patiently two hundred cases yearly 
is all that it can do conscientiously. To read the 
record, the briefs, and examine the authorities in 
two hundred cases, — that is, about one case in 
every working-day in the year, — is all that any 
court of five men can do. Besides this, the mem- 
bers must write their opinions, every word and 
299 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

every line of which are to be subjected thereafter 
to the most critical analysis. 

2. Every year adds immensely to the labors of 
a judge in the multiplication of authorities and 
text-books. To be a good judge in the days of 
Zephaniah Swift, whose library consisted of a 
dozen books, and to be a good judge to-day is 
like the difference between a college one hundred 
years ago and a college to-day. One hundred years 
ago law was a matter of common-sense. To-day it 
is a question of analogy and of authorities. 

3. Our present system necessarily causes great 
delays. The judges are often unable to investigate 
a case and prepare the opinion in less than a year 
after it is argued. This of course suspends the 
case for all that time, and entails great expense 
and trouble upon clients and attorneys. All such 
delays tend to bring the administration of law in 
this State into contempt with the driving business 
men of to-day. 

4. We all want an unprejudiced court. We 
want every case to come to the Supreme Court 
untried and unheard by all its members. We do 
not want that judge who has tried our case on the 
circuit, and done what we believe to be an injustice 
to our clients, to sit on the Supreme Court bench 
or in the lobby or in the consulting-room when 
our case is being finally disposed of. 

5. We want in every case the independent 
investigation and judgment of five judges. That 

300 



CIRCUIT DUTY 

is the number which the wisdom of the State has 
fixed upon, and that is the number we are entitled 
to and demand. Let the law create no excuse for 
the want of a full bench and a separate investiga- 
tion in every case by five men. To be sure, you 
can call for a full bench ; but it is almost an insult 
to the four men sitting on the bench, and always 
causes delay. Most lawyers hesitate to do it. 

6. The multiplication of courts — the creation 
of common pleas, district, and city courts — has 
in the last ten years largely increased the duties of 
the Supreme Court judges. 

7. Practically the Supreme Court judges held 
only a criminal term, or some unimportant civil 
term, recognizing among themselves that they 
ought not to be expected and do not desire to do 
circuit duty. 

8. This change is demanded to-day; and if on 
trial it shall be found that our Supreme Court 
judges suffer for the want of circuit duty, we can 
very easily return to the old antiquated custom. 

I have heard only two arguments against the 
proposed change. One is that it is a great benefit 
to the judges to do circuit duty. I believe that 
that is all a humbug. No man knows as well as 
the judge himself whether or not he is benefited by 
circuit duty. Now, I think if this matter were left 
with the judges of the Supreme Court, they would 
vote unanimously that to do circuit duty is an 
intolerable nuisance, and of no appreciable benefit 
to themselves. 301 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

The only other argument I have heard is that it 
tends to make them civil ; that to do circuit duty 
serves as a sort of instigation to keep the spirits of 
our Supreme Court judges humble, submissive, and 
peaceful. 

Such arguments go well with a weak case. 

R. H. 



302 



BROWN UNIVERSITY PRIZES 

New York, Jan. 28, 1891. 

Rev. E. B. Andrews, 

Brown University, Providence, R. I. : 

Dear Sir, — I have been thinking of offering 
prizes, amounting to fifty dollars each year, divided 
as follows : thirty-five dollars for the first, and fif- 
teen dollars for the second, — for excellence in 
Junior Debating Competition. There is a similar 
system in Yale, which has recently, I believe, been 
opened to all members of the Junior Class. 

I thought I would offer this for one year ; and 
if on trial it proves a success, I would offer to the 
University money enough to insure a continuance 
of the prizes in the future. 

Please give me your impressions in this matter, 
and then I will decide what I shall do. 
Yours respectfully, 

Ratcliffe Hicks. 



Providence, Jan. 30, 1891. 
My dear Mr. Hicks, — Your valued communi- 
cation of the 28th inst. is at hand. Your proposi- 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

tion is a most welcome one. Our young men 
need precisely the inducement which you suggest. 
The plan would give a support to the Junior work 
in speaking which is much needed, and which 
could not be secured in any other way. It will 
give me great pleasure to hear from you further 
in the premises. 

Very truly yours, 

E. Benj. Andrews, 
President Brown University. 



President's Room, Brown University, 
Providence, R. I., June 12, 1891. 
Received of Ratcliffe Hicks one New York and 
New England Railroad Company six per cent one 
thousand dollar bond (second mortgage). No. 
4414, which he presents through me to the Cor- 
poration of Brown University, as the foundation 
of two yearly premiums or prizes for excellence in 
debate. 

E. Benj. Andrews. 



304 



GIFT TO MERIDEN HIGH 
SCHOOL FUND 

Meriden, Conn., March 23, 1894. 
Hon. Ratcliffe Hicks: 

Dear Sir, — In behalf of the High School Com- 
mittee I beg leave to thank you for your muni- 
ficent gift of fifty dollars to be applied to the High 
School Fund. 

Thirty-six essays are now in the hands of the 
Committee, from which seven will be selected to 
be read on Commencement Day for prizes. 
We trust that you will be able to be present. 
Respectfully, 

Chas. H. S. Davis. 



Saratoga, Sept. 15, 1894. 
Dr. C. H. S. Davis, Meriden, Conn, : 

Dear Sir, — I wish to transfer to the proper 
Committee or person one thousand dollars in the 
Gold and Stock Telegraph Co., bearing six per cent 
interest, guaranteed by the Western Union Co. for 
ninety-nine years, in order to make permanent the 
20 305 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

prizes I have been giving from year to year to the 
Meriden High School. If you will tell me exactly 
to whom and how to transfer the bond and who 
will receipt for the same, I will instruct my secre- 
tary at Bridgeport to attend to the matter at once. 
You may answer my letter to the address of 73 
Warren Street, N. Y. City, Hicks Building. 
Yours very truly, 

Ratcliffe Hicks. 



306 



THE RATCLIFFE HICKS PRIZES IN 
THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

Saratoga, Sept. 15, 1894. 

Treasurer Agricultural College, Storrs, Conn, : 

Dear Sir, — In order to make permanent the 
prizes I offered, I propose to transfer to the Treas- 
urer of your College one thousand dollars in the 
Gold and Stock Telegraph Co., bearing six per 
cent interest, guaranteed by the Western Union 
Co. for ninety-nine years. This is to make per- 
manent the Ratcliffe Hicks prizes. 

Would it be proper if I had the bond transferred 
to the Treasurer of the College without mention- 
ing any name as Treasurer ; and if not, how should 
the bond be transferred? As soon as I get a 
reply, I will instruct my Secretary to attend to the 
matter ; and I suppose that he can send it by 
express to Storrs, if it is not convenient for the 
Treasurer to call at my office in Bridgeport to 
receipt for same. 

Yours truly, 

Ratcliffe Hicks. 
307 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 



Storrs, Conn., Nov. 3, 1894. 
Mr. Ratcliffe Hicks, New York : 

Dear Sir, — The bonds which you directed the 
Canfield Rubber Co., Bridgeport, to send to the 
College are received, and I have placed them in 
my safe, and will communicate with the Trustees 
and place them at their disposal. I suspect that 
they will want to put them in some safer place 
even than our supposed fire-proof safe. 

In behalf of the institution and all concerned, I 
express to you our gratitude for this timely help to 
stimulate our young people to better work in the 
lines indicated. I understand that you received a 
copy of one of the prize essays of last summer, 
and shall make inquiries of the other competitor, 
— the young man receiving the second prize, — 
and if he has not already sent you a copy, I shall 
have one made and forwarded to you. 

I believe you have never visited this institution, 
and I now give you a cordial invitation to do so. 
When you are in Tolland County, at your con- 
venience, I should be glad to have you come and 
look over the work for yourself. 

We found ourselves before the opening of the 
fall term with about thirty more applicants than 
we had accommodations for. By removing all single 
beds from rooms intended for but one pupil, and 
putting in double folding-beds and other devices, 
we were able to accommodate those who wished to 
308 



PRIZES IN THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

enter. We find ourselves very much crowded 
with our present accommodations, but are manag- 
ing to get through the year, hoping that the com- 
ing Legislature will do something to relieve the 
pressure and give us means to do our work here. 
Again, let me thank you for your help in our 
work. 

Yours truly, 

B. F. KooNS, 
Pres, Storrs Agricultural Col. 



309 



STATUE TO FREDERICK S. 
BROWN 

From the Hartford ^^ Daily Times, '^ Thursday, 
May 31, 1894. 

Mayor Brainard received the following letter 
to-day, which he will submit to the Common Council 
for appropriate action : — 

Midland Grand Hotel, London, 
May 17, 1894. 
Hon. Leverett Brainard, Mayor of Hartford, Conn. : 

Dear Sir, — I read in the " New York Herald " 
of May 7 of the death of Mr. Frederick S. Brown. 
With the approval of yourself and the authorities 
of the city of Hartford, I should be pleased to 
erect a monument to his memory, to cost not less 
than ^5,000, provided the same can be erected in 
one of the public parks of the city, — a cause in 
which he was so deeply interested. An early reply 
will oblige. Please write me, care S. S. Morgan 
& Co., Bankers, London. 

Yours respectfully, 

R. Hicks. 
310 



STATUE TO FREDERICK S. BROWN 

The Mayor referred the letter to the Park 
Commissioners. 

At a meeting of the Park Commissioners on Wed- 
nesday, the offer of Mr. Ratcliffe Hicks to erect a 
monument on the park to the memory of the late 
Frederick S. Brown was considered. Mayor Brainard 
was requested to write to Mr. Hicks acknowledging 
the offer, and asking for information as to the style 
and plan of the proposed memorial. Before a reply 
could be received, Judge Sherman W. Adams, Presi- 
dent of the Park Commissioners, wrote to Mayor 
Brainard in behalf of the Board, giving its conclusions 
respecting the offer of the Hon. Ratcliffe Hicks to 
erect at his own expense a memorial in the park to 
the late Frederick S. Brown. The letter is given in 
full : — 

Hartford, Conn., June 4, 1894. 
Hon. Leverett Brainard, Mayor : 

Dear Sir, — The Board of Park Commissioners 
to whom you were pleased to refer the letter of 
Ratcliffe Hicks, Esq., containing his generous offer 
to erect a monument in one of the parks of this 
city in honor of the late Frederick S. Brown, Esq., 
has had said letter under consideration, and, as a 
result thereof, this Board hereby announces its 
conclusions as follows : — 

First, a memorial of the kind in question, on, 
public grounds, here at the capital of the State 
would be a mark of great honor such as should be 
dedicated to the memory of Connecticut citizens 
who have rendered eminent services to the State 
311 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

or nation only, whether these services were ren- 
dered on land or on sea, in the interests of science, 
beneficial legislation, alleviation of distress, or by 
benefactions in behalf of humanity in general. 

Second, on the public grounds now in charge of 
this Board only two memorials have been erected, 
aud each of them is in honor of a citizen whose 
services were of national importance. In the mil- 
itary service, such heroes as Mason, Treat, Lyman, 
Wooster, Spencer, Parsons, and others, of Colonial 
and Revolutionary fame, and Lyon and Sedgwick 
of the late war, are still without memorials. In 
the naval service, Hull, Chauncey, McDonough, 
Foote, and Ward are without such public recogni- 
tion. So are such statesmen and jurists as John 
Winthrop, Oliver Ellsworth, Chauncey Goodrich, 
William Samuel Johnson, Zephaniah Swift, and a 
score of others who might be mentioned. Noah 
Webster, a native of Hartford, has not been thus 
honored. And there are sons of Connecticut who 
have been famous as poets, writers, scientists, or 
inventors who have deserved equal honors. So 
there have been distinguished theologians and 
physicians. It is not probable that more than a 
very few of these eminent men will have costly 
memorials or monuments erected to their honor 
on the public grounds of this city. Indeed, it is 
not desirable that there be many such works ; 
otherwise those areas would have too much of the 
appearance of a cemetery. 
312 



STATUE TO FREDERICK S. BROWN 

Third, the principle involved is one that should 
not be encouraged by a precedent of this kind. 
If it come to be understood that a person may 
cause a monument to be erected in honor of some 
personal friend of his, in one of our parks, on the 
ground that it is to cost the city nothing, how long 
will it be before others will be coming forward with 
like proposals? And where may the procession 
end ? If it be Mr. Hicks's idea to do honor to Mr. 
Brown as a former park commissioner, then we 
doubt the propriety of the erection of a public 
monument to the memory of any member of this 
Board, as such ; and we think that if any person 
is to be honored by such a memorial because of 
great service in connection with our public parks, 
that person is the late Horace Bushnell. 

Our friendship and esteem for Mr. Brown was 
quite equal to that of people in general ; in fact, 
we were admirers of his many good qualities, and 
we duly appreciated his services to the public. 
But this is not a question of private friendship, 
and our deliberate judgment is as above set 
forth. 

In behalf of the Board, 

Very respectfully yours, 

Sherman W. Adams, 
President. 

Ratcliffe Hicks writes Mayor Brainard from Carls- 
bad, Germany, under date of June 21 : — 

313 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

Carlsbad, June 21, 1894. 
Hon. Leverett Brainard, Mayor of Hartford, Conn. : 

Dear Sir, — Your polite letter of June 7 is just 
at hand. I regret the action of the authorities of 
your city. I had no thought of erecting the bust 
or monument as a memorial of a personal friend, 
but as a public testimonial to a man who had lived 
for fifty years and more in your own community, 
and who was without a superior in all those years 
in personal integrity, in urbanity of manner, in 
good common-sense, in all that rounds up and 
makes a perfect man. 

Yours sincerely, 

Ratcliffe Hicks. 



314 



GIFT 

To the Congregational Ecclesiastical Society of 
Tolland. 

Tolland, Conn., August i, 1894. 

Sir, — At the last Annual Meeting of the Con- 
gregational Ecclesiastical Society of Tolland, it was 
unanimously voted that the thanks of this Society 
be extended to you for your very generous gift of 
fifteen hundred dollars towards repairing and re- 
modelling their church edifice, and also for your 
services as a member of the Building Committee. 

The clerk of the meeting was instructed to com- 
municate to you the above vote, and to enter the 
same upon the Records of the Society. 
Respectfully, 

Edward E. Fuller, 
Clerk. 
To Mr. Ratcliffe Hicks, 

Tolland, Conn. 



315 



COUNTY REFORM 

New York, Nov. 15, 1894. 
To THE Editor of the "Courant" : 

I AM very glad to see that you are urging a 
revision of the laws governing the issuing of 
licenses and the conducting of county affairs. I 
introduced a resolution looking to that object at 
the last session of the Legislature, but seeing that 
the time was not ripe for such action I let the 
matter drop. I am firmly convinced that there 
are many radical changes needed. 

First, I would have the county commissioners 
elected by the people, and take the miserable con- 
test of their appointments out of the hands of the 
Legislature and away from the influence of the 
lobby. 

Second, I would also have the county treasurer 
and county clerk and county auditor elected by the 
people instead of, as now, being appointed by the 
county commissioners. They are elected in all 
the cities and towns of Connecticut, and why 
should they not be in our counties ? 
316 



COUNTY REFORM 

Third, I would provide for the licenses being 
issued by the clerk of the counties, a distinct 
ofifice from the clerk of the courts, and that the 
money should be paid direct to the treasurer of 
each county by the licensees. 

Fourth, I would have these licenses issued upon 
the approval of the selectmen of the town, and 
have no other hearing, — the same as is done in 
the case of the United States licenses. 

Fifth, I would provide that the representatives 
of each county should meet at the shire town on 
some fixed day annually, instead of meeting at the 
Capitol at odd times, to listen to the written re- 
ports of the county commissioners, of the county 
treasurer, of the county clerk, and of the county 
auditor, and make such appropriations as they 
may deem wise from time to time for the repair 
and care of the county property and for all county 
expenses. 

Sixth, I would provide that the county clerk 
should act as clerk at all the meetings of the rep- 
resentatives of the county, and keep correct records 
of all the doings of the county commissioners. The 
records of the doings of the county commissioners 
and of the transactions of county business for the 
past ten years are in most counties in a horrible 
condition, and in some counties there are no 
records at all. 

Seventh, I would provide that the district at- 
torney of each coimty should act as the legal 
317 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

adviser of the county officers, and if necessary I 
would increase his salary for that purpose, and 
take away from the county commissioners the 
power of hiring one or half-a-dozen lawyers as 
they see fit, and pay them whatever they ask. 

Eighth, I would take away the power of appoint- 
ing prosecuting agents from the county commis- 
sioners, and create the office of assistant state's 
attorney. He should be appointed by the courts, 
the same as state's attorney ; and he should have 
charge of all liquor prosecutions before the justice 
courts, and assist the state's attorney when the 
cases come to trial in the superior court. His 
services would be invaluable. 

The county commissioners of Connecticut are 
more absolute than the autocrat of all the Russias. 
They contract and pay their own bills ; they are 
responsible to nobody, and handle annually some- 
where from half a million to a million dollars, — 
nearly as much as the entire receipts of the State 
of Connecticut. The governor is an infant in 
power compared with the patronage and authority 
vested in the absolute will of these county commis- 
sioners. They always have been an injury to any 
political party to which they belonged and which 
they attempted to serve, whether Republican or 
Democratic. It is time that this old, worn-out, 
antiquated, and cumbersome system of transacting 
the legitimate business of the people was modern- 
ized and methodized, and made in harmony with 
318 



COUNTY REFORM 

nineteenth-century ideas. By my vote and by my 
voice, if necessary, I will do what little lies in my 
power to help on this reform which you are so 
ably advocating. 

Ratcuffe Hicks. 



319 



RETRENCHMENT 

Letter published in the '^ Meriden Record." 

Hartford, Conn., March 6, 1S95. 

The State of Connecticut took the first step in 
the matter of administrative economy to-day when 
Ratcliffe Hicks's resolution for the appropriations 
committee to investigate the expenses of the differ- 
ent departments of the State government, with a 
view to retrenchment, was taken from the table 
and passed unanimously. Mr. Hicks made an 
able speech in favor of his measure, in which he 
said that the business men throughout the country 
are at present cutting down expenses, and it 
would be well for the State of Connecticut to do 
the same. He cited several instances wherein it 
seemed to him unusually large expenditures of 
money in different departments had been made. 
The contingent fund of the senate, he claimed, 
has heretofore been altogether too large, and 
should be looked into. 

Judge Cowell of Waterbury seconded Mr. Hicks's 
remarks. Mr. Cowell's speech has set some of the 
members from New Haven County to thinking. 
Judge Cowell is one of the warmest advocates and 
supporters of the Waterbury court-house measure. 
320 



THE BRIDGEPORT RAILROAD 
PROBLEM 

Hartford, Conn., May 9, 1895. 
To THE Hon, E. W. Marsh, Representative of Bridgeport : 

Dear Sir, — You were kind enough to ask me 
on Thursday last for my views on the Bridgeport 
grade-crossing bills. At that time I had not given 
the matter much attention, as I had been awaiting 
the action of the railroad committee, besides being 
occupied with pubUc and private business. But 
since then I have been reflecting on the matter, 
and have settled in my own mind what will be my 
position, although I have had no opportunity to 
consult with any person, and therefore express 
only my own views. 

First, I am earnestly in favor of a new lay-out, 
which shall carry the track of the Consolidated 
Railroad Company to the north of the city of 
Bridgeport. This, in my opinion, is the only route 
the company should ever adopt, thereby straight- 
ening their track, avoiding many curves and a 
drawbridge, and establishing a route which can be 
called permanent, and which will accommodate 
the people of Bridgeport and the travelling public 
in the near future, if not to-day, far better than the 
present lay-out. 

21 321 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

Second, I cannot conceive how it is of any 
benefit to the tax-payers of Bridgeport to have a 
milUon people, more or less, hurled annually 
through the air thirty or forty feet above the street 
levels and looking down on them. 

Third, I think the elevated track would be a great 
blot and blur on the good looks of Bridgeport. 

Fourth, I think the smoke, the noise, and the 
dust from a railroad of four tracks, doubling and 
trebling its business every ten or twenty years, 
would become in the end a great nuisance. 

Fifth, I do not think there is a single piece of 
property in Bridgeport which in the opinion of a 
fair commission will be benefited one dollar by 
reason of the elevation of the track. 

Sixth, if the arguments of the Hon. William D. 
Bishop as to the failure of Bridgeport to contribute 
money towards the construction of this railroad 
company are to be considered or have any weight 
(and his social, financial, and political standing 
must necessarily give them great weight), then it 
follows necessarily that if Bridgeport is to con- 
tribute a large sum of money, it shall contribute it 
in the same manner and in the same way only as 
was the case with all the other cities and towns 
in Connecticut ; to wit, by a majority vote of the 
people. And I am in favor of submitting the law 
to the approval of the voters of Bridgeport. No 
one has any right to bind or speak conclusively for 
them in this matter. The tax-payers of Bridge- 
322 



THE BRIDGEPORT RAILROAD PROBLEM 

port have never elected or selected any man, be 
he mayor, senator, representative in the General 
Assembly, or member of the Common Council, 
to act for them in such a weighty and important 
matter. It would be the greatest assumption of 
authority, and without a parallel in this State, for 
the present city officials or representatives in the 
Legislature to force upon the city of Bridgeport 
an indebtedness of five hundred thousand dollars, 
more or less, without leaving the matter to the 
decision of the voters, and without any direct 
authority to make such an arrangement. 

Seventh, I think no business property in Bridge- 
port will be damaged by the new lay-out. I think 
Bridgeport will need, as time goes on, all its water 
front for other purposes than railroads. I think 
Bridgeport must necessarily grow northerly, and 
that in fifty years Bull's Head will be far nearer 
the centre of population than the present post- 
office or station. I think the railroad is of no 
benefit to adjoining property, — except, possibly, 
to a few factories with a side track. I think the 
railroad has no effect on the centre of business, 
and has made no difference in New Haven, Hart- 
ford, or Springfield. Chapel Street in New Haven 
and Main Street in Hartford and in Springfield 
have remained entirely unaffected by the loca- 
tion of the station; and so it is in ninety-nine 
cities out of a hundred throughout the United 
States. 

323 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

Eighth, there has never been any man con- 
nected with the ConsoUdated Railroad Company, 
except the Hon. Charles P. Clark, — with possibly 
one bare exception, Mr. Bishop, — who has been 
able to grasp the future of this railroad and to look 
twenty-five years ahead. In my opinion, he is 
about the only man whose descendants in fifty 
years from now can point to a single act of con- 
struction or lay-out by their ancestor which will 
meet with the admiration and approval of the men 
then living. 

I advise, then, both as a tax-payer of Bridgeport 
deeply interested in its future prosperity, and as a 
friend of the Consolidated Railroad Company, that 
they shall establish a lay-out which will have plenty 
of grounds for stations, side-tracks, express offices, 
electric-car connections, carriage grounds, and 
which will accommodate Bridgeport fifty years 
from now, with its quarter of a million of inhabi- 
tants ; and to reach that limit, the growth of 
Bridgeport in the next fifty years will not be as 
marvellous as it has been in the last fifty years. 
Yours very respectfully, 

Ratcliffe Hicks. 



324 



LETTER TO GOVERNOR 
COFFIN 

Hartford, Conn., May 29, 1895. 
Hon. O. Vincent Coffin, Hartford, Conn. : 

Dear Sir, — I think it is not in many years 
that we have had a Governor more conscientious 
and more faithful in attending to the duties of his 
ofifice than yourself, and I especially commend 
your course in the matter of the Whipple School. 
But I fear you little know the true condition of 
the public affairs in Connecticut relating to our 
beneficiary institutions, if you think that this is 
the only matter which deserves your serious and 
careful attention. 

I will not in this letter attempt to explain fully 
all I know, but I will give you a few illustrations ; 
and whatever I state I am prepared to indorse as 
truthful. 

First, within the last two years the executive 
committee of one of our great public institutions 
sat down to examine the bills of that institution. A 
bill was presented for ten barrels of sponges. No 
one on the committee seemed to know what it 
meant ; the clerk said he did n't either ; but finally 
the manager of the institution came in, and the 
question was referred to him. He replied that it 
325 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

was for ten barrels of flour which his own family 
had used ; and he said he did n't propose to eat 
the flour furnished to the inmates. He said it was 
the first time since his connection with the institu- 
tion that his bills had ever been questioned, and 
that he would at once give in his resignation. He 
instructed the secretary to make it out. 

Second, within the last three years a gentleman 
was selected as a manager of one of our public 
institutions, and at the close of his first month he 
had many checks sent to him, amounting to nearly 
$500, all which he returned. On inquiry he found 
that they were intended as commissions on the 
purchases made by the institution. The parties 
said they had been regularly paying these com- 
missions for many years. How true this may 
be of other institutions I have not the means of 
knowing. 

Third, in the files of the Treasurer's office at the 
Capitol can be found correspondence which will 
prove that a five per cent commission has been 
demanded and received for loans made out of the 
funds belonging to the School Fund office. 

These instances will prove to you that you have 
a task to perform which involves the greatest 
amount of knowledge and intelligence, — which 
some of your predecessors never possessed, or, if 
possessing, never exercised. 

Is it not, my dear Governor, about time to intro- 
duce honest business methods into the manage- 
326 



LETTER TO GOVERNOR COFFIN 

ment of all the institutions and departments of the 
State government, — the same business methods 
which have given Connecticut manufacturers and 
business men their present successful standing 
before the people of this country? 

I think you are equal to the occasion, and I 
look for good results from your further investiga- 
tion into the unfortunate condition of the public 
affairs of the State of Connecticut. 
Yours very truly, 

Ratcliffe Hicks. 



327 



RESOLUTIONS OF THANKS 

From the Hartford Equal Rights Club. 

At the meeting of the Hartford Equal Rights 
Club, the following resolution was read and 
adopted : — 

Whereas, The political rights of one-half of the 
adult citizens of this nation, the women, have been 
persistently ignored and their participation in pub- 
lic affairs denied, even to a voice in the education 
of their children, — and this wrong has been so 
long continued that men have become unconscious 
of its injustice and its injurious effects upon man- 
kind, till only the more enlightened, just, and fair- 
minded realize that it is a wrong to woman and to 
society that should no longer be suffered to exist : 
therefore be it 

Resolved, That the Hartford Equal Rights Club 
tenders its thanks to the Hon. Ratcliffe Hicks for 
his earnest and admirable address in support of the 
woman's school suffrage bill and in favor of the 
political rights of women ; and the Club extends 
its cordial thanks to every member of the General 
Assembly who in good faith voted for the bill. 

32S 



INTERVIEWS 



AN OPINION ON CONGRESS 

An Intetview in the " New York World" 
Nov. 5, 1893. 

Bridgeport, November 4, 

Mr. Ratcliffe Hicks, Representative in the Gen- 
eral Assembly from Tolland, besides being one of the 
wealthiest manufacturers in Connecticut, is an in- 
fluential politician. He has served several terms in 
the State Legislature, and in addition to being urged 
to accept the nomination for Congress from the First 
District, which includes Hartford, is prominently men- 
tioned as a Democratic candidate for governor in the 
next election to succeed Governor Morris. He is 
the President and practically the sole owner of the 
Canfield Rubber Company, and as a successful busi- 
ness man has interesting opinions as to the cause 
of the recent financial depression. To a "World" 
representative to-day he had this to say : — 

Congress has voted away the people's money 
without stint, for pensions, for public buildings, for 
harbor improvements, for the army and navy, 
never thinking that every dollar they voted repre- 
sented one man's day's work. Some man had to 
toil one whole day to supply every dollar which 
they have wasted like water. 
331 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

It is economy at Washington ; it is economy in 
State, in city, and in town affairs ; it is economy in 
the management of factories, railroads, stores ; it is 
individual economy in living, — that will make this 
country rich and prosperous. You cannot eat 
your cake and have it. The Jeffersonian, the 
Jacksonian, the Tilden system of administrating 
public affairs is the only one that will bring 
permanent and lasting prosperity to this country. 

A majority of the members of Congress glory in 
the fact that they are not worth a dollar, that they 
do not know how to make a dollar, and that 
they never expect to be worth a dollar; and yet 
these men propose to show other men how to 
make money ! If any man has money, they are 
ready to attribute it to luck or chance rather than 
to economy or industry and good judgment. 

It is disgusting to read how this man and that 
man, this company and that company, have spread 
themselves out, borrowing money to promote or 
engage in hazardous business enterprises, hoping 
they can pay six per cent interest on borrowed 
capital, and still have a sure profit for themselves ; 
and the moment the business lulls, and the banks 
call for their loans, then they turn round, and 
instead of acknowledging their own want of busi- 
ness sagacity they lay all the blame on John 
Sherman and his little Silver Bill ; or perhaps, if 
they are Democrats, they lay the blame on the 
Republican maladministration; or if they are 
332 



AN OPINION ON CONGRESS 

Republicans, they lay all the blame to the " horrid 
Democratic blunders." The wealthiest manufac- 
turer in Connecticut was Henry H. Hubbard of 
Middletown ; and he told me some years before 
he died that he had not given a note in twenty-five 
years, and that in a business career of fifty years 
he had not paid one moment's attention to any- 
thing that Congress was doing ; that he had run 
his factories on business principles, and paid no 
heed to political legislation, and that before doing 
so he would go out of business entirely. 

What the people of this country want is an 
honest and economical government. Congress has 
been altogether too extravagant with the people's 
money, and they want a government that will keep 
its hands out of class legislation, whether you call 
it silver or iron or tin or wool or coal or sugar, and 
let the people of this magnificent country — the 
richest the sun shines on — work out their own 
destiny ; and then they will come out all right. It 
will never do to run this government to please 
Wall Street or government parasites. Wall Street 
howls for Congressional action. What for? That 
they can put on a confiding public more cordage, 
more lead, more sugar trusts, more schemes full of 
water or gas, or both. There has got to be a 
panic ; and panics are healthy. They bring busi- 
ness down to a normal level, and men to their 
senses ; they teach a lesson to men who are float- 
ing on financial bladders; they kill the wicked 
332 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

schemes emanating from Wall Street, wherein 
honest people are led by dividends paid but never 
earned, and by false statements, to take bonds and 
stocks in its swindling schemes, and thereby with- 
draw millions from honest enterprises to make a 
few rogues rich at the expense of the vast public. 
These are two terrible elements that prey upon the 
public. They produce nothing, they do not add a 
dollar to the values of this country, and their wishes 
are no more to be consulted than the inmates of 
an insane asylum. 

I believe in the Washburn Bill. I believe that 
no man should be permitted to sell what he cannot 
deliver. I believe that gambling in Wall Street is 
no better than gambling on a horse-race ; and in 
fact I believe it is more injurious to business inter- 
ests, for in Wall Street they gamble upon the neces- 
sities of life and upon the materials on which 
manufacturers must work; they speculate and 
make false values in corn, in wheat, in pork, in 
iron, in lead, in cotton, and in sugar, thereby both 
robbing the producer of the fruits of his honest 
toil, and harassing and confusing the manufacturer, 
who is unable to make any satisfactory calculation 
for the future. 

It is not political speeches nor editorials that 
the common people of this country need, but a 
few tracts, — like those issued by Franklin under 
the name of " Poor Richard," condensing the wis- 
dom of Franklin ; like those of John Stuart Mill, 
334 



AN OPINION ON CONGRESS 

of Adam Smith, of Thomas R. Malthus, of Francis 
Wayland, — showing that wealth and prosperity 
are not to be gained from or through the govern- 
ment, but by every man and every business concern 
observing certain cardinal principles in living, in 
expenses, and in the conducting of business. It 
is in this way that the working-people of France 
have become so wealthy. I have seen them stand- 
ing all night in the streets of Paris to be ready to 
subscribe for a new government loan the next 
morning ; and they subscribed for fifty times the 
amount the government required. 

I believe that all the currency of this country 
should be issued by the Government. I believe 
that the examination of banks should be taken out 
of politics, and should be under the supervision of 
men appointed by United States judges, and they 
should hold their place during life or good be- 
havior. There should be no more politics in the 
management of a bank than in that of a factory. 

I believe that the United States government 
should be responsible for all deposits in a national 
bank. This would not be such a serious under- 
taking for the Government, and its very assurance 
or guarantee would prevent runs and unwholesome 
withdrawals of deposits. Or, if this system is not 
adopted, then the government should make the 
results of its investigations known publicly, the 
same as is done in city and town affairs. National 
banks secure the confidence of the public because 
335 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

of the fact that they are subject to examination by 
the government, and countless millions are in- 
trusted to them every day for this reason. And 
yet these confiding depositors have no means of 
knowing the character of the bank or the safety 
of their deposits; for whatever the examinations 
made, the results thereof are not disclosed to the 
depositors, the men above all others who should 
know. They are made to the Comptroller of the 
Currency at Washington, and to the President and 
Cashier of the bank in the way of reprimands or 
cautions ; but all information as to the weakness 
or bad management of a national bank is relig- 
iously withheld from the only disinterested party 
in the whole transaction, — the depositor, who is 
left to shift for himself. Let the government adopt 
the plan of making public the results of bank 
examinations, and there would be no more runs 
on banks, and no more hoarding of money by 
frightened depositors. Three hundred million 
dollars of currency was withdrawn from the banks 
and hidden in stockings and safes this summer, 
for want of this very confidence. A bank should 
mail to every depositor (in justice also to their 
stockholders) a copy of each report of the govern- 
ment examiner, and thus keep the depositors 
aware of the condition and standing of the bank 
in which they have deposited their money. You 
cannot blame the public for losing confidence in 
the banks when they are kept in ignorance of 
336 



AN OPINION ON CONGRESS 

their true condition, and in many cases are grossly 
misled by the statement of bank officers. 

What the business interests of this country de- 
mand is that Congress shall stop legislating for 
classes as against the masses; stop legislating in 
the interest of the bankers, and legislate a little more 
in the interest of the depositors ; that it should stop 
legislating in the interest of a few pet manufacturers, 
for of all the industries of this country none are so 
dead to-day as the pampered industries, like silk, 
woollen, gun, cutlery, wooden screws, and iron, and 
a host of others that were unjustly protected until 
they became so profitable that hundreds of people 
engaged in the same line of business, — so that 
finally it was no longer foreign competition which 
they feared, but the competition at their next 
door, necessitating trusts, combinations, and pool- 
ing schemes to keep up profits and prevent over- 
production. 

Let Congress adjourn for five years, and go 
home and stay there, and the business interests of 
this country will take care of themselves. If Con- 
gress will only go home, we prophesy that Grover 
Cleveland will never again call it together. Presi- 
dent Harrison was not far from right when he 
called Congress " Cleveland's wild horses." 



22 



337 



A TRIBUTE TO NEW ORLEANS 

From, the New Orleans ^* Picayune,* 
March i6, 1894. 

Hon. Ratcliffe Hicks is one of the wealthiest men 
in New England, and one of the most successful busi- 
ness men of the day. He is the president of the Can- 
field Rubber Works of Connecticut, a member of the 
Legislature, and prominent in politics. Mr. Hicks 
has made some investments in New Orleans, and 
expresses himself as delighted beyond all expecta- 
tion with the city. He said to a reporter of the 
" Picayune " last night in his rooms at the Grunewald 
Hotel : — 

I HAVE been all over the world, but I have never 
seen an avenue or a public thoroughfare of any 
kind that equals St. Charles Avenue. I desire to 
say that it is the prettiest street I have ever seen. 
It possesses a uniqueness that charms ; and the 
vegetation and the lay of the grounds, as well as the 
style of the buildings which line the street, please 
the eye and suggest to the observer the delight 
that one must feel to reside in such a community 
and on such a street. 

To say that I am delighted with New Orleans 
would be to express myself mildly. This is a 
338 



A TRIBUTE TO NEW ORLEANS 

wonderful city, presenting to any American who 
resides in the North or the West an individuahty 
that is unknown to any other metropoUs in the 
United States, or anywhere for that matter. New 
Orleans needs to be advertised in the North, and 
the advantages of the city as a winter resort set 
forth. The death-rate ought to be shown up and 
compared with other cities in order to disabuse 
the public mind, for there certainly exist erro- 
neous opinions of New Orleans in the North. A 
great many people there believe that the city is 
unhealthy. I know it is not, and every one ought 
to know it. These matters should be published to 
the world, and repeated until the belief becomes 
general, that instead of having here an unhealthy 
city you have one of the healthiest in the United 
States, or in any other country, with a death-rate 
lower than can be found almost anywhere else, all 
things compared. I have found that in the winter- 
time this is a good city to come to when one is 
sufifering with a bronchial trouble. Your average 
yearly temperatures should be published during 
all the seasons. I myself don't think the summer 
here is half so disagreeable as the summer in New 
York or Chicago. New Orleans can be com- 
mended as a summer resort as well as a winter 
resort. Another thing : you have all along the 
gulf coast suburban watering-places that surpass 
similar places in Florida or anywhere else. People 
throughout the country have very little idea about 
339 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

it because it has never been advertised. I am 
afraid you people down here don't use enough 
printer's ink in speaking of your own greatness. 
I have been along the Mediterranean. There the 
monsoons which come about four o'clock in the 
afternoon drive the pleasure-seekers indoors, and 
the clear and beautiful sea is turned into a boister- 
ous one. 

New Orleans and its suburbs are much better 
than any place in Florida for winter resorts. There 
is nothing in Florida to interest people. California 
is too far away. Here are amusements of all kinds, 
and a great diversity of interesting things to be 
seen. You have a great many novelties that please 
the eye. I have been in Paris, and I am frank in 
saying that I have found the surroundings here 
preferable. There is however one thing which 
you lack : you should have better drainage. Then, 
too, you need more hotels, for nothing brings peo- 
ple to a city like good hotels. You have not near 
enough here to accommodate the people who want 
to come, or who will come. It is a fact that more 
hotels bring more people. This is a nice one to 
stop in, but you should have more like it. With 
better accommodations and facilities for the enter- 
tainment of strangers, there is no reason in the 
world why this city should not become the greatest 
resort in the United States. You have the opera 
and the races ; and then there is the vegetation and 
the foliage and the flowers ; and the people are hos- 
340 



A TRIBUTE TO NEW ORLEANS 

pitable and kind. The city is full of social life 
and pleasure, and the business men don't wear 
themselves out making money to the exclusion of 
all other duties of life. The people are interest- 
ing, educated, and refined. The clubs are not 
excelled an3rwhere. I have gone down to some 
of the clubs here, and found men playing chess at 
three o'clock in the afternoon. They will talk to 
you about the opera, the drama, politics or factory 
or anything, but they seldom speak of business in 
social life. Now, in New York you go into a club, 
and the men are talking about the exchanges and 
the rise and fall of stocks. They eat a lunch in 
three minutes, more or less, and are gone again. 
Not so here. 

There is a prejudice against New Orleans which 
a free use of printer's ink should eradicate. It is 
groundless. I believe so much in New Orleans 
that I propose to buy some more property here, 
and shall probably move my family here in the 
future. 

Another thing I should speak of, and that is the 
great commercial advantages afforded by Nature 
to this city. Situated as it is at the mouth of the 
greatest river in the world, it becomes at once a 
metropolis, with an incalculable commercial future. 
Your cotton and sugar and rice are products which 
keep up trade and business, and are not dependent 
upon legislation altogether for their existence. 
They are three of the necessaries, and will of 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

course find a market. This keeps up business, 
and renders values less liable to fluctuation. Your 
business interests don't vary so much with tariff 
changes as those in the New England States do. 
Too much cannot be said of New Orleans. 



342 



A TARIFF COMMISSION 

Interview published in the " New York World,* 
April S, 1894. 

Bridgeport, April 7. 

Ratcliffe Hicks, a leading manufacturer of this 
city and one of the leading politicians of the State, 
returned yesterday. He has been on an extensive 
trip through Brazil and Central America, Mexico and 
Lower California. Mr. Hicks has always taken an 
active interest in politics. For four years he has been, 
a legislative representative from Tolland, and has 
been identified with many State reforms. He is also 
mentioned prominently as a candidate for governor in 
the fall elections on the Democratic ticket. It is gen- 
erally believed that in the contest for this election the 
nomination will be between Ratcliffe Hicks and E. C. 
Benedict. Neither is anxious for the nomination on 
account of the unsettled condition of the tariff, but 
probably either will accept the nomination if the inter- 
ests of the Democratic party of Connecticut demand 
it. When Mr. Hicks left last fall. Congress was just 
beginning to discuss the tariff question, with every 
prospect of speedily settling it. Most of the time 
since Mr. Hicks has been out of reach of the daily 
papers, and was surprised on his return to find that 

343 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

Congress had done so little. His remarks on the sub- 
ject are interesting. To a "World" representative 
he said : — 



I THINK the Wilson Bill is probably as good a 
bill as can be drawn by politicians. They are 
swapping jackknives down in Washington ; that is 
all : " If you vote for my scheme, I will vote for 
yours." This is without regard to the interests of 
the tax-payers and the consumers of the country. 
Politicians have been fighting over this tariff ques- 
tion seventy-five years, and they will probably con- 
tinue to fight over it seven hundred and fifty years 
longer if the people will let them do it. The 
tariff should be taken entirely out of politics, and 
be committed to a board of the most intelligent, 
non-partisan, disinterested men that can be found 
in the country. They should hold office for a 
term of ten years, and should receive the same 
salary ar- judges of the United States Supreme 
Court ; all interested parties should have a right 
to appear before them and present their claims, 
and the decision of the board should be final 
for a given number of years. This is what 
the business interests of the country demand, 
and what they will some day have in spite of 
the politicians ; for politicians thrive on this tariff 
question. 

I think the Income tax is the most just and 
reasonable tax ever proposed. It is the tax of 
344 



A TARIFF COMMISSION 

the world, for every nation has it ; and if left to 
the people, it would be voted by a majority so 
overwhelming that the opponents would be in a 
contemptible minority. I am glad that the Demo- 
cratic party has taken up this issue. My only fear 
is that the Republicans will not dare to make it a 
party issue. 

Upon disposing of the tariif question, Congress 
ought to adjourn and go home, after cutting down 
the appropriations from fifty to one hundred mil- 
lions at least. The people of this country pay 
more tax per head than any nation in the world, 
and have the least to show for it. Our army costs 
as much, practically, as any of the armies of 
France, Germany, Russia, or England, and in 
comparison looks like a fly on an elephant. Our 
navy costs us about as much as the navy of France 
or England, and is a picnic party compared with 
the naval armament of those countries. We have 
the most extravagant and most wasteful govern- 
ment in the world. What we need at Washington 
is a business men's government. We have a busi- 
ness man for President of the United States, and 
what we want in Congress is more business men 
and fewer lawyers. We want more voting and less 
talking. We want business methods applied to 
the administration of the affairs of this govern- 
ment. We are living under a system adopted 
one hundred years ago by a few planters from 
Virginia, and it no more meets the requirements 
345 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

of the age than would a stagecoach for transport- 
ing passengers from Boston to New York. We 
want the same businessUke method in the manage- 
ment of government affairs as is applied to vast 
railroad interests like the Pennsylvania road, or 
the New York Central, whose annual receipts and 
disbursements far exceed those of the United States 
government prior to the War of the Rebellion. 

I asked W. H. Barnum once why he did not, 
with all his political influence, get some govern- 
ment contracts. He said that this United States 
government would make any man dishonest who 
had any business to transact with it. You had to 
go to Washington, he said, and lie round hotels 
for weeks to get a contract. Then you had to sit 
in the anteroom of some bureau officer and wait 
his time for approving your vouchers; and after 
you had waited weeks for this man to act, who 
worked with no vim and was green to his business 
(probably some broken-down politician), the 
chances are that you would be at last told that the 
appropriation was exhausted, and you would have 
to wait until the next session of Congress. Finally, 
you would give up in disgust, and put your claim 
into the hands of some attorney who had the run 
of the Department. Consequently, every con- 
tractor had to ask from twenty-five to fifty per 
cent more than he would of an individual, in order 
to reimburse himself for his time, trouble, and 
expense. 

346 



A TARIFF COMMISSION 

The Post-office building at Hartford cost the 
government about ^700,000. The wealthiest con- 
tractor in Connecticut has repeatedly informed me 
that he would build one exactly like it for $300,000. 
So it has been all over the country in everything 
that the government has attempted to do. Why 
the elevator in the Post-office at Hartford has not 
been running, so I am informed, because the 
appropriations are exhausted 1 Ex-Collector Byx- 
bee informed me that he could not get money 
enough to buy either a broom or a snow-shovel 
while he was collector of the port of New Haven 
for four years, to clear off the snow from the 
sidewalks in front of the Custom House. These 
are only a few of the hundreds and thou- 
sands of instances that are occurring every day 
all over the country (the newspapers are full of 
them) which show how the entire system of run- 
ning the business affairs of the government needs 
remodelling. 

The hope of this country is that some day a 
man like S. J. Tilden will come to the front ; and 
it will make no difference whether he is a Demo- 
crat or a Republican, so long as he and his party 
shall remodel the affairs of our government, bring 
order out of chaos, stop corruption and stealing, 
and prevent the awful waste of the tax-payers' 
money, which in my opinion has done more to 
bring on the present distressing state of business 
in the United States than any other one thing. 
347 



RATCLIFFE HICKS 

Remember always that every dollar the govern- 
ment expends costs some man one whole day's 
work to earn, as a dollar is the average daily 
wages throughout the United States ; and remem- 
ber, also, that economy is the only royal road to 
national or individual wealth. 



To THE Editor of the "Times": 

As more or less has been said in the newspapers 
in regard to my candidacy for the Democratic 
nomination for Governor next fall, permit me to 
say through the columns of your paper that I am 
not a candidate for that or any other office. Un- 
der no circumstances will I accept the same. I 
write this letter in justice to the many good men 
whose names have been mentioned. Whoever is 
nominated will receive my cordial support. 

A friendly reporter overstated my position some 
months ago. Those who have known me long 
and well will bear me witness that at no time has 
it been my intention or desire to force my candi- 
dacy upon the party. 

To those who have spoken kindly of my nomi- 
nation I tender my thanks ; and their kind words 
are better to me than an election. Permit me to 
add that there are certain important changes in the 
administration of public affairs in Connecticut, and 
348 



DECLINES THE NOMINATION 

certain great economies in the public expendi- 
tures of the State, in which I became interested 
during my service in the last two sessions of the 
General Assembly, and which I hope to see ac- 
complished in the near future. They have no 

political bearing. 

Ratcliffe Hicks. 

New York, April 6, 1896. 



THE END. 



349 



PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY 
PRESS AT CAMBRIDGE MASSA- 
CHUSETTS UNDER THE DIRECTION 
OF STONE AND KIMBALL 



nm 7 1904 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




